Secret of Mount Calliope
by Elizabeth Joan-hbndgirl
Summary: When Ned's cousin begins receiving threatening letters, Nancy, Bess, and George head to Colorado to respond to the call for help. As the investigation continues, Nancy and her friends realize that the case is much more serious than they supposed and that if they are to solve it, they will need help from a certain detective brother duo.
1. Trouble in Colorado

J.M.J.

 _A/N: Hi there! Thanks for reading! This is the beginning of another full-length story. It's not the continuation of the WW2 arc that I've hinted at, but I'm working on that one. It's just taking a long time, so until it's ready (which will hopefully be sometime!) here's this story. It's a little more of a classic Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys mystery. The first several chapters are just Nancy, but don't worry if you're a Hardy Boys fan - Frank and Joe will have plenty to do. Thank you in advance for reading and for possibly reviewing, favoriting, and/or following! I always appreciate feedback on my writing!_

 _Speaking of my writing, I've got something exciting going on with it. If you're interested, check out the last paragraph on my profile. However, you're here for the story, so without further ado, here it is! Enjoy!_

 _ **Secret of Mount Calliope**_

 **Chapter I**

 **Trouble in Colorado**

"The end of the Christmas season is the worst," eighteen-year-old Bess Marvin complained as she regretfully took and ornament from her family's tree and put it in a box.

"Yeah, and the worst part of it is all the red and pink Valentine's Day decorations that are going up," added her cousin, George Fayne.

Bess paused a moment, trying to decide on the best response to this. Then she sighed. "Ordinarily, I'd make some crack about how unromantic you are, George, but Christmas decorations are so pretty and Valentine's Day decorations are such an eyesore, I have to agree with you."

George froze in pretended shock. "Nancy, did you hear that?" she asked her other closest friend, Nancy Drew, who was helping them undecorate. "Bess actually agrees with me about Valentine's Day of all things. This is a historic moment. It should be documented."

She whipped out her phone and snapped a picture of Bess before the blonde girl could protest.

"Ugh, George, I must look awful in that," Bess complained.

"Well, maybe a little." George tried to say it with a straight face, but as she looked at the picture which showed Bess with a very odd expression of her face, she couldn't help breaking into laughter.

Bess looked over her shoulder and her face turned beet-red at the sight of the photo. "George Fayne, you delete that...that abomination immediately!"

"No way!" George only laughed harder. "It's going on Twitter."

Bess's eyes widened with horror. "George, no! No, no, no, no, no!"

"It wouldn't stand up in court as evidence that Bess agreed with you anyway," Nancy pointed out as she tried to mediate the situation.

"Who cares about that now?" George asked teasingly.

"Okay, if it's blackmail you want, I'll pay anything." Bess was beginning to realize that her cousin was teasing her, and so she decided to go along with it.

George rubbed her chin. "Hmm. A tempting offer. I'll have to think about that."

Just then, Nancy's phone chimed to alert her that she had a text. Bess and George probably would have gone on with their bantering, but Nancy interrupted by announcing, "Ned's going to drop by in a minute. He says he has a case for us."

Although she was only eighteen, Nancy had already gained a reputation as an amateur detective. Friends and acquaintances and even strangers often came to her, asking for help in getting to the bottom of puzzling situations. Ned Nickerson was no stranger, though. He and Nancy had been dating for some time, and Ned frequently helped Nancy with her cases. However, it wasn't very often that Ned was the one to come to Nancy with a problem.

The other girls quickly forgot their argument in their excitement over a new case. Bess and George were Nancy's most frequent sleuthing companions. Although they occasionally complained or teased Nancy about it, they were always excited by the prospect of a new case, and the conversation swiftly turned to that topic.

Within a few minutes, dark-haired Ned Nickerson arrived at the Marvins' front door. He was a student at Emerson College, which was a couple hours' drive from Nancy's hometown of River Heights. School was starting the next Tuesday, and so Ned was busy getting ready to leave.

"Hi, girls!" he greeted them, giving Nancy a small kiss on the cheek. "Still working on the undecorating?"

"Yeah," Bess replied. "It's depressing. Why do we have this tradition? Why don't we each just undecorate our own house? Then we'd each only have to undecorate one house instead of three."

"Because doing it together gives us an opportunity to make such wonderful memories." George waved her phone with a lopsided grin on her face.

Bess blushed, but the last thing she wanted was for anyone else to see that horrible picture, so she said nothing. Maybe she could get ahold of George's phone later and delete it herself.

"What about the case you mentioned, Ned?" Nancy asked. Once a mystery had been brought up to her, she was always impatient to hear the details.

"It sounds like a good one," Ned told her. "The only problem is that you'd have to go to Colorado to solve it."

Bess gave a small squeal and clapped her hands. "Going to Colorado is a _problem?_ This time of year? When we could go skiing in the Rocky Mountains?"

"I've got to agree with Bess there," George added.

"Ha!" Bess exclaimed. "Now you agreed with me on something. I'll have to document this." George had just enough time to make a face before Bess snapped her picture, which only made the end result worse. Bess grinned as she looked at it. "This is going on Twitter _and_ Instagram."

Ned cast a questioning glance at Nancy. "Did I miss something?"

"Nothing too much," Nancy told him. "Come on. Let's sit down in the living room and talk about the case. What connection do you have to Colorado, anyway?"

"I have a cousin who lives there," Ned told her. "Cole Warner. I don't know him all that well. He's about twelve years older than me and has lived in Colorado pretty much since he graduated college. He came up just last July for a family reunion. I mentioned your detective work to him, Nancy, and so when all this started happening, he thought he'd see if you would be willing to get to the bottom of it."

"The bottom of what?" Nancy asked.

"At the moment, it looks like extortion, but Cole thinks there might be more to it."

Ned took a sat down on the loveseat with Nancy beside him, while Bess and George each took seats in armchairs. All three girls listened with close attention to what Ned was saying.

"You see," Ned explained, "Cole is a firefighter in the town of Calliope, Colorado. It's about the same size as River Heights - so just big enough to have a paid fire department, but there's only about fifteen or twenty guys in it. About three weeks ago, Cole found a letter on the windshield of his car when he was leaving work. It wasn't signed and was typed. He ignored it at first, but then a few days later, he got another letter, and since then he's been getting them more frequently. In the last few days, he's gotten one each day. They've also started showing up inside his house or his car, and he's getting pretty worried."

"What do the letters says?" Bess asked.

"They all have the same general message," Ned replied. "They're all warning him to either leave Calliope or join the local firefighter union. Otherwise, according to the letters, he'll 'regret it'."

George raised an eyebrow. "Someone's trying to force him to join a union? That doesn't make much sense."

"Maybe if a majority of the other firefighters belong to the union," Nancy said. "Do they?"

"No. Cole says there's only seven members," Ned explained. "He's asked the others who aren't part of the union if they've been getting similar letters, and apparently they have. Most of them are pretty sure one of the unionized firefighters is behind it to try to increase membership, but Cole thinks that's a little far-fetched. He's starting to think he should go to the police, but then again, he'd like to know whether it really is one of his co-workers before he does that."

"Even if the person writing these letters isn't serious about the threats, it's still illegal to send threats like that," Nancy pointed out. "And if whoever is doing it is breaking into people's houses and cars, then that's even more concerning, whether the threats are serious or not. Going to the police wouldn't be a bad idea."

"True," Ned agreed, "and Cole probably would if he could get a couple of other guys to back him up, but none of them are willing. He thinks that if you could learn what was going on, then maybe the whole thing could get cleared up without the police getting involved at all."

"I'll ask Dad what he thinks when he gets home," Nancy said. "It sounds like the other firefighters are probably right and it's just one of the unionized men. Still, there could be something bigger behind it."

"And a skiing vacation would be fun, anyway," George added. "Are there any ski resorts near there? Oh, uh, provided Bess and me are invited."

"Of course," Ned assured her. "And there is some pretty good skiing over there. The town of Calliope is right next to Mount Calliope, which is a big resort. Cole's invited me to come skiing there before, but with school there's never been enough time." He frowned in disappointment. "I wish I could come this time. It would be even more fun with all of you along."

"I wish you could come, too," Nancy said. "I suppose Cole wants us to come as soon as possible."

Ned nodded. "I guess if you go, it'll cancel our plans on Sunday for the play and dinner."

Nancy squeezed his hand. "We probably couldn't leave that soon, anyway. I should call Cole and work out those details."

Ned took a slip of paper from his pocket. "Here's his number. He asked me to give it to you. Oh, one more thing. Part of why Cole is hesitating to go to the police is because he's worried that whoever is behind this might try to retaliate against him, and since he has a wife and a young daughter, he definitely doesn't want that."

Nancy nodded. "I can understand that. I'll talk it over with Dad and then give Cole a call."

NDHBNDHBND

Later that evening, Nancy had told her father, Carson Drew, about the case. Carson was a lawyer and had handled his share of mysterious cases, often with Nancy's help. He knew that Nancy loved traveling for her cases, although it did worry him at times. This case, however, didn't sound particularly dangerous, especially since the client was a cousin of Ned, which instilled a great deal of confidence in him.

Bess and George also secured the permission of their parents for the trip, and so Nancy placed a call to Cole Warner to discuss the case and plans for the trip with him. When he answered, Nancy was instantly struck with the fact that he sounded nervous.

"Wow, that's really great of you, Nancy," Cole said without enthusiasm. "I'm really grateful that you'd even consider it."

"But…?" Nancy asked.

Cole chuckled nervously. "You're as good as Ned says, aren't you? Yeah, I guess there was a 'but' coming. See, there's been some new developments, and…" He sighed heavily. "I don't know what to do. It's starting to look like this is going to be dangerous, and I'd hate for you to get hurt on my account."

"What's happened?" Nancy asked, her heart beating faster.

There was a long pause, and then Cole said, "I got another letter just since I talked to Ned earlier. This one was the most threatening yet. The person who wrote it said that they'd come after my daughter if I didn't do what they said, or if I called the police. I don't know what to do. If I call you in, they'll probably figure out who you are and what you're doing. I can't take the risk for either you or my family."

"It's possible," Nancy admitted. "But this person still hasn't actually done anything?"

"No."

"Then I think you should go to the police anyway," Nancy said. "It could be they're all talk, but they still have to be stopped."

"No. I've thought about. Believe me, I've thought about nothing else since I got that letter. It's a small town, Nancy. You can't do anything without everyone else learning about it. If I go to the police, whoever this is will find out about it in no time."

"Then let me investigate," Nancy said. "I'm sure we can come up with some story that will sound plausible so that no one knows why I'm really there. I could give a different name, and pretend that Bess and George and I are just there for the skiing. Ned told me that Mount Calliope is fairly big resort."

"It is," Cole agreed. "That might work. You could even stay there if you want to pay for it. It's pretty expensive. In fact, I just remembered. A couple weeks ago, I mentioned to some of the guys that I invited one of my cousins from the Chicago area to come skiing up here. If we said that you're my cousin, they'd probably buy it." He paused again. "But what if they don't? It's risky."

"Very," Nancy confirmed, "but I think it's the least risky thing you can do. If you give into their requests or leave town, who knows what might happen? The person behind this might just decide that they can push anyone they want around, and you'll be putting all the other firefighters at risk. And then if you ignore their requests indefinitely, they might decide to carry out their threats."

Cole sighed. "Yeah. You've got a point there. Okay. All right. We'll try this."


	2. Threats

J.M.J.

 _A/N: Thank you so much for continuing to read! In particular, thank you to Cherylann Rivers, max2013, and beachgirlsrule for your reviews and to everyone who has favorited and/or followed so far! Your support is very much appreciated._

 _Cherylann Rivers asked about whether Nancy is in high school or college. I guess I've always assumed that since Nancy is never in school at all in the books that after graduating high school, she took a year off before starting college, if she went to college at all and didn't just go straight into a detective career. So, anyway, in this story, Nancy isn't currently in school._

 **Chapter II**

 **Threats**

Nancy grabbed her bag from the carousel. Despite the small airport in Calliope, there were quite a few bags waiting to be claimed. Many of them contained ski gear, and Nancy assumed the owners were headed on their way to Mount Calliope Ski Resort. Then she turned around and scanned the faces of the people waiting to pick up a friend or relative for Ned's cousin.

"We can delete them at the same time," Bess was saying. "That's the only bargain I'll make."

Nancy turned to look at her two friends. "Those pictures still? Neither one of you posted them on the Internet yet."

"That's because we have a blackmail stand-off on our hands," George said. "If I post the picture of Bess, she'll post the picture of me."

"Anyway," Bess interrupted, "where's this cousin of Ned's?"

Nancy turned back toward the group of people again and this time she spotted a face that matched the picture that Ned had shown her, as well as a woman and a young girl of about seven. Nancy waved to them. "There they are."

Cole Warner saw Nancy and her friends at the same moment and waved back to her. "Nancy?" he said when they were close enough to talk.

"That's right," Nancy replied. "These are my friends, Bess and George."

Cole shook hands with each of them. Then he gestured to the woman and the girl who were next to him. "This is my wife, Adrienne, and my daughter, Serena." He glanced around him with a nervous expression. "Why don't we head for home? I'm sure you girls are probably tired and hungry after your flight."

"I know I am," Bess replied.

While they followed the Warners to their SUV in the parking lot of the airport, Adrienne asked the girls about their hometown and their families. By the time they reached the Warner home, they were chatting with Adrienne like they were old friends. The other two members of the Warner family were decidedly less friendly. Cole only spoke when someone asked him a question, and usually they had to repeat it since his mind was clearly on something else. Serena didn't speak a word and only clung to a doll while she looked at the strangers with wide eyes.

Bess tried once to make friends with Serena by asking her what her doll's name was, but the girl only opened her eyes wider and pulled away as much as she could with a seatbelt on.

It turned out that the Warners only had one spare bedroom, something that both Cole and Adrienne apologized for profusely. With only one bed in the room, the best they could offer the other two girls was camping cots. However, the room was big enough to hold the bed and the two cots, and so all three guests put their baggage inside it.

"Again, I'm really sorry about the sleeping arrangements," Adrienne said. "We could still put you up in a hotel if you'd rather, although it take some persuading to get Cole to agree to that."

"It's fine," Nancy assured her. "We just hope we can help you out."

"Yeah." Adrienne bit her lip, but she instantly brightened again. "We can talk about that after the three of you unpack. This room does have a nice, big closet so you can hang your clothes up. I'd better go fix some supper."

As she left the room, George surreptitiously closed the door behind her and then turned to her two friends. "Well, what do you think of our hosts?"

"Adrienne certainly seems nice enough," Bess said as she unzipped her bag.

Nancy crossed her arms as she thought it over. "Cole seems pretty concerned, although that's no wonder. What I don't understand is why Adrienne seems so calm about it all."

"She looked worried when you mentioned it to her," George reminded her.

"True," Nancy admitted. "We'd better just wait until we can talk them about it more before we start drawing conclusions."

It wasn't until after Serena was in bed that Cole and Adrienne agreed to talk about the letters. To begin with, Cole showed the stack of letters to Nancy and her friends, who looked through them. There were no clues in the letters, though, as they were all typed with simple messages warning Cole to either leave town or join the union. They were inside blank envelopes.

"Are these the envelopes they were delivered in?" Nancy asked.

Cole nodded. "The first one was delivered just about a week before Christmas, on the seventeenth. That one was under the windshield wiper of my car. At first, they were only delivered every two or three days, but I've gotten one every day for the last week."

"You said that some of the other firefighters have received similar letters," Nancy said. "Are they being delivered as often?"

"I don't know," Cole replied. "When it first started, I asked them about whether they were getting letters like this, too, and they were willing enough to talk about it then, but it wasn't long before none of them would talk to me about it at all. I thought maybe it was because we were on duty and some of the guys in the union might be around and might overhear, but they won't talk about it at home or over the phone, either. I don't know why. It's not like them. I mean, I'm friends with pretty well all the guys in the department, or at the very least, we get along. I don't know what's going on with this."

"Could you give me some names?" Nancy requested. "And the names of the men who are part of the union. A good place to start on this case would be seeing what I can learn from or about them."

"Sure. I'll write that out for you later," Cole said. "I assume you have more questions, though."

"Right," Nancy replied. "You said that you didn't want to go to the police because you were afraid of the person sending these messages retaliating against you. You also said that none of the other men in the fire department are willing to go to the police. Do you know why?"

Cole shrugged. "I assume for the same reason as me."

"But surely not all of them are married or have kids," Nancy pointed out. "Do you have any idea what kind of leverage these people might be using against them?"

"I suppose even unmarried people have families," Adrienne answered for her husband. "Parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, not to mention girlfriends. Everyone has some leverage that could be used against them."

"That's true," Nancy admitted. "It just seems strange to me that out of about twenty firefighters, there isn't a single one besides Cole here who wouldn't ignore the threats and try to do something about these threats anyway."

Cole and Adrienne exchanged a glance, but neither of them offered any more of a response than a shrug of their shoulders.

"Has anyone given in to these threats yet?" George asked. "I mean, if no one's done anything about the threats, maybe they know something about them that you don't."

"Two guys have," Cole said, "but so far the rest of us haven't budged."

"Personally," Adrienne spoke up, "I don't really believe that there's too much to worry about. This has been going on for three weeks now, for us, anyway, and nothing more has happened than these threats. If this person was serious, they would have actually done something by now."

"Do you really want to take that chance?" Bess asked askance.

"Adrienne does have a point," Nancy replied. "I still think that this case needs cleared up, whether the person is serious or not, but it is strange that these threats have been being made for so long without anything being done to back them up."

"Do you think they're bluffing, then?" Cole asked.

"Possibly," Nancy said. "I don't think either of you should let your guard down until we know for sure. Just out of curiosity, why haven't you joined the union?"

"Quite a number of reasons," Cole told her. "Politics aside, though, the union just isn't very effective. It's to small. Like I told you before, there were only seven guys in it. Even now, there's only nine. That's half the fire department, sure, but none of them know what they're doing."

"Whoever's in charge of recruitment sure doesn't." George smirked.

"But numbers aren't going to make up for lack of organization," Bess pointed out. "It just doesn't make sense."

"This union is completely locally run?" Nancy asked.

"That's right," Cole confirmed.

"There's just the seven guys who are a part of it, plus the two new ones?" Nancy continued.

Cole nodded.

"Then that only really gives us seven suspects." Nancy frowned. "The only problem is that they ought to have known that it would be easy for anyone to trace who has been sending these messages. You said you're friends with most of the other firefighters, Cole. Did you ask any of those seven about these messages?"

"Not point-blank," Cole admitted. "At first, I didn't want to look like I was throwing accusations around, and then I figured confronting them might not be the safest idea."

Nancy thought for a moment, turning the problem over in her mind. The one thing she kept coming back to was that Cole hadn't tried very hard to figure out who was threatening him and his family. A man who made his living by pulling people from burning buildings being that intimidated by an anonymous threat didn't ring quite right, especially when it was his own family that was at risk. That, however, was something that would be best to keep to herself for now. Instead, she asked, "Could you give me the names of our suspects now?"

"Sure." Cole left the room to fetch a pen and a pad of paper. Then he began jotting down names. When he had finished, he handed the list to Nancy. It read:

 _ **Union members:**_

 _Liam Vang_

 _Noah Smith_

 _Will Noel_

 _Jim Whitley_

 _Logan Johnson_

 _Ben Williams_

 _Mason Velazquez_

 _Elijah Jones - new member, received threats_

 _Oliver Cooke - new member, received threats_

 _ **Non-union members:**_

 _Jake Brown - received threats_

 _Lucas Knowles - received threats_

 _Mike Davis - unknown whether received threats_

 _Alex Langley - unknown_

 _Ethan Miller - unknown_

 _Dan Puckett - received threats_

 _Matt Wilson - received threats_

 _Aiden Rocha - received threats_

Nancy read over the list. "This should be a big help to me. Can you also tell me…"

She was cut off by a loud thump at the front door. Everyone in the room jumped. Then Nancy and George, with Bess and the Warners following a moment later, rushed to the door to look out. It was dark by now, but when Adrienne flipped on the porch light, there was no sign of any person outside.

Nancy stepped out and looked around her carefully. The others joined her. While Nancy and George were looking toward the street to see if they could spot anyone walking or driving away, Bess happened to glance at the door itself which they had closed behind them. She gasped as she noticed what had made the thumping sound. An arrow was embedded in the door.


	3. The Slopes of Mount Calliope

J.M.J.

 _A/N: Thanks so much for continuing to read! Thank you especially to beachgirlsrule, max2013, Cherylann Rivers, and DusktoDawn21 for your reviews! I really appreciate them. Sorry this chapter is a day late - the last couple of days have been kind of crazy. Hopefully I can get back on schedule now._

 **Chapter III**

 **The Slopes of Mount Calliope**

Bess couldn't form the words she needed to tell the others about the arrow sticking out of the Warners' front door and could only point at it. Adrienne noticed it as well and gasped, which caught the attention of Nancy, George, and Cole. All three stared at the arrow in dumbfounded amazement for a moment or two, and then George reached up to yank it out of the wooden door.

"Wait!" Nancy ordered, and George immediately stopped. "This is serious. We really should call the police now."

"I think we should," Adrienne agreed, looking at her husband.

Cole shuffled his feet. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" George's tone was perhaps a bit harsher than she meant it to be. "There's a maniac shooting arrows at your house, and you don't know whether you should call the police?"

Cole swallowed hard. "It's just that if I call in the police, it might not be the door that they're shooting at next time."

"That's true," Nancy admitted, "but this only keeps escalating. The most you're doing by not calling the police is delaying whatever this person plans to do."

Cole shook his head doggedly. "I don't think so. They've hesitated every step of the way so far. They don't really want to hurt anyone, and I don't think they will, not unless we force their hand by dragging the police into this. Anyway, even if it would come to that, we're still buying you time to solve the case."

"Yes, but the police could solve it faster," Nancy argued. "They have resources and manpower that I don't have."

"I'm not going to the police," Cole insisted. "You just clear this up, Nancy."

Nancy sighed. It wasn't that she wasn't willing to solve the mystery; it was just that this case was getting more serious by the minute. It was a senseless risk to put off bringing in any help she could get. Still, if Cole refused to cooperate with the police, there wouldn't be much they could do anyway, and if Nancy called them herself without Cole agreeing to it, Chances were that he might stop cooperating with Nancy then, too, and it might put her at even more of a disadvantage.

"All right," she agreed, her reluctance obvious in her tone. "I'll keep investigating on my own, but if I can't clear it up before something like this happens again, then we really do need to get the police involved."

"I'm sure you can," Cole said.

"But what if it's too late already?" Adrienne asked, her arms folded.

Everyone turned to look at her.

"What if whoever is sending these threats used the arrow because they already know that Cole went for help?" Adrienne went on. "What if they know who Nancy is and why she's really here?"

"It's possible," Nancy admitted. "It wouldn't be too hard to find out about me on the Internet. If that's the case, there's not much point keeping up our cover story."

"No, no," Cole protested. "There's no definite evidence that anyone knows who you are. It's not worth taking the risk."

"Then what's the plan?" George asked.

"You're sure you won't call the police?" Nancy asked Cole one more time.

"Positive," Cole insisted.

"The shooter probably left right away, so there's no point trying to find them," Nancy said. "Let's see what we can find out from the arrow itself."

She fetched a pair of latex gloves from inside the house and put them on to pull the arrow out of the door. Then she took it inside and began dusting it for fingerprints. There were none. Then, along with Bess and George, she went outside to see if she could find the archer's footprints. However, it was dark, and it was too hard to find any prints.

"Well, that's two clues fizzled out," Bess commented. "Any other ideas, Nancy?"

"The arrow isn't a total washout," Nancy said. "We already have a pretty small base of suspects, and if we narrow it down to just the ones who can shoot a bow…"

"There will probably only be one name on the list," George interrupted. "Let's ask Cole about it."

When the question was posed to Cole, he stopped and looked thoughtful. "Ethan is the only one who's really serious about archery, but I think a few of the other guys shoot casually. Lucas, Jim, Alex...I don't know about anyone else."

Nancy consulted her list. Ethan Miller was listed as one of the non-union men whom Cole wasn't sure if he had received threats or not. Of the other three that Cole mentioned, the only one who was a union member was Jim Whitley.

"We should look into all four of them," Nancy said, "although Jim looks like our best bet. Do you have any idea how we might manage to talk to him without getting him suspicious?"

"Well, it might be a long shot, but it's also the best thing for your cover," Cole replied. "Jim is a big outdoorsman. Tomorrow's his day off, so chances are he'll probably be skiing. If you go tomorrow, you just might run into him."

"It's worth a try then," Nancy agreed. "Do you have a picture of him so we can recognize him if we do run into him?"

NDHBNDHBND

George pulled her ski goggles down over her eyes. "Are we ready to do this?"

It was a little past ten the next morning. Nancy, Bess, and George had rented their equipment and taken the lift to the top of the mountain. They were currently standing at the head of a black diamond trail, about to start their first run of the day.

Bess looked down with a little apprehension showing in her face. "Did we really have to start on such a hard run?"

"I thought you liked steep runs," George reminded her.

"I do," Bess said. "It's just that none of us have been skiing yet this winter. We might be a little...rusty."

"This should get all the rust out of our systems," George said. "Besides, if Jim Whitley is such an outdoorsman, he's going to be on one of the harder trails. Right, Nancy?"

"Right," Nancy agreed. "If we spot him, remember our excuse for talking to him."

"We're staying with your cousin, Cole, and he showed us a picture of himself with the other firefighters, and we recognized him," Bess said. "Then we ask him if he skis here much and can he show us the best trails? Then, while we'll ride the lift with him and get to chatting, and George will mention that she likes archery."

"Perfect," Nancy replied. "Hopefully we'll get the chance to put that plan into action. Let's go."

The girls headed down the slope, George shooting ahead, Bess hanging back, and Nancy somewhere in the middle. They were all experienced skiers, and even with some rustiness from the off-season of skiing, they moved down the slope with ease.

That was until the trail narrowed suddenly. George thought she could make it through that part with no issue until she saw that another skier was in the middle of the path, adjusting one of the straps on his boot. George shouted and tried to slow down, but it was too late for that. The best she could do was try to go around him, but she misjudged how hard to turn and wound up running right into a deep snowbank.

The man who had caused the accident rushed to help her, as did Nancy and Bess, who had witnessed the wipe-out.

"Hold on, George, we're right here!" Bess shouted, as she tried to pop her boot out of the ski. In her hurry, she found it more difficult to do than it ordinarily was.

"I'm fine," George protested. She tried to get up but immediately tripped and fell to her knees again. "My skis are tangled, though."

"I'm so sorry about this," the man said, bending down to help George get her skis off. "It was my fault. I should have gone off to the side so I wouldn't be in the way."

"No damage done," George assured him and then added, "Thanks," as he finished pulling the skis off and then offered her a hand to get up.

"You're sure you're not hurt?" Nancy asked in concern.

"Only my pride." George gave Bess a rueful glance. "Maybe we should have started on the bunny hill after all."

"Speak for yourself," Bess teased her. "I'm not the one who wiped out on my first run."

"I really am sorry," the man repeated. "I don't ski all that often, and I realized halfway down that my boots needed some readjustment."

He pushed the goggles he was wearing on top of his head. Nancy had had a vague hope that he might be Jim Whitley himself, but his statement that he didn't ski often killed that hope. When he took off his goggles to reveal a handsome face with just a tiny bit of facial hair, it finished squashing what was left of the hope. This was definitely not Jim Whitley.

"Oh, I'm sure it's all right. George said she's fine," Bess spoke up. "By the way, my name is Bess. That's my cousin, George, who almost ran over you, and this our friend, Nancy." There was a lilt to her voice that Nancy and George both recognized.

"I'm Jason," the man said. "Are you from around here?"

"No," Bess replied. "We're from the Mid-West. A little place called…"

"Westcott," Nancy interrupted quickly, saying the first name that came to mind, which happened to be the brand printed on Jason's ski poles.

"Never heard of it," Jason said nonchalantly, apparently oblivious to Nancy's attempt to conceal as much of the girls' identity as possible. "Is this your first time coming to Mount Calliope?"

"Yeah," Bess said. "I wouldn't mind if this became our new go-to for ski vacations, though."

George rolled her eyes behind Jason's back.

"It's really been nice meeting you, Jason," Nancy said. "We should probably get moving before someone else tries coming through here." She wanted to end the conversation before Bess could say anything that would blow their cover.

Jason skied with them the rest of the way down the hill, but they parted ways at the base, with Jason heading back toward the lodge and the girls toward the chair lift. Bess glanced over her shoulder to watch him go.

"He is so cute," she said with just a touch of wistfulness in her voice.

George made a face. "He's got to be at least thirty."

"That doesn't stop him from being cute," Bess argued.

"He's also acting weird," George went on, determined to dislike any of Bess's crushes. "They hill just opened. That had to have been his first run. Why did he stop halfway down, and then just go back to the lodge?"

"He said his boot needed adjusted," Bess pointed out. "Maybe he wanted to get some help fixing it at the lodge."

"Which trail do you think we should take next time?" Nancy asked, hoping to end the argument right then and there. She stopped right in front of a sign showing a map of all the different runs.

"I'm ready for an even harder one," George said. When Bess raised her eyebrows, she added defensively, "That wipe-out wasn't my fault. As long as there are no people sitting smack in the middle of the trail, I'll be fine."

George picked an out-of-the-way trail towards the back of the mountain. It was narrow all the way through, and once again Bess protested.

"I don't know that this even is a trail," she said.

"It has a sign and it's groomed," George pointed out.

They started down, but it wasn't long before even George had to admit that the trail wasn't the greatest. At one point, it appeared to branch off in two directions, and there was nothing to indicate which way to go.

"You can probably go either way," Nancy said. "Let's try the right."

After about a hundred feet, the "trail" petered out. The three girls gave a collective sigh.

"Now what do we do?" Bess asked. "Walk back up to the real trail?"

"If we cut across, we can probably reach the trail and it would be shorter," George suggested.

The others agreed to try that, so they took off their skis and carried them. Walking in deep snow and ski boots was never a fun task, and they made slow progress. After about ten minutes, Bess was winded and had to stop to rest a moment. Calling ahead to the others, she flopped down in the snow and put her hands behind her. They sank farther than she expected into the snow until her fingers brushed something hard. It didn't quite feel like a rock, and so Bess turned to dig it up and see what it was.

The object emerged from the snow all at once, revealing one of the last things Bess expected to see. She jumped back with a small shriek of surprise.

Staring up at her from where it had been buried in the snow was a human skull.


	4. Captain Ellis

J.M.J.

 _A/N: Thank you for continuing to read! Thank you to everyone who has followed and/or favorited, and thank you most especially of all to everyone who has left since I posted the last chapter: max2013, beachgirlsrule, ErinJordan, and Cherylann Rivers. I really appreciate hearing your thoughts!_

 **Chapter IV**

 **Captain Ellis**

At the sound of Bess's scream, Nancy and George turned to see what had happened. All they saw was her sitting on the ground, staring at something in the snow. They hurried back to her.

"What happened?" George demanded.

Bess pointed shakily. "That."

Nancy and George followed her finger and saw the skull staring up at them with empty eye sockets. Even George couldn't help but shudder.

"Okay," Nancy said, instantly business-like once her first surprise was over. "Did you dig that up, Bess?"

"Not on purpose!" Bess protested. "I just happened to sit down on it...him...whatever."

"What do you think happened to him, Nancy?" George asked.

"I don't know," Nancy replied. "I'm guessing he's been out here for quite a while. Those bones look pretty weathered. We've got to report this to the police." She checked her phone, but there was no reception on the mountain. "One or two of us should stay here, so we can for sure find the spot back, but we can't move the skull or any other bones that might be around. The police will want to investigate to see if there's any sign that this was a murder."

"I'll go." Bess shivered. "I don't want to stay with...that any longer."

George rolled her eyes. Now that the surprise was over, she was completely calm. "There's nothing an old skull can do to you, Bess. I'll stay with him."

"Then Bess and I will head down to the lodge and call the police," Nancy said.

The two girls picked up their skis again and started heading back toward the trail once more. Once they reached it, they skied the rest of the way down the hill. There still wasn't cell reception at the lodge, so Nancy and Bess went inside. As they made their way to the desk, Nancy noticed Jason sitting in one of the lounge chairs next to the big picture windows that afforded anyone inside the lodge a view of the main ski hill.

"Excuse me," Nancy said to the woman at the desk. She kept her voice low in an attempt to not attract attention. "Could I use your phone? I need to call the police."

"The police?" the woman repeated in a tone that made everyone around look up. "There hasn't been a crime, has there?"

"No, I don't think so," Nancy replied. "My friends and I found something that needs to be reported, though."

"Pardon me." Nancy and Bess looked behind them to see that Jason had gotten up and walked over to them. "I couldn't help overhearing you say something about the police. I'm Captain Jason Ellis, Internal Affairs, Calliope PD." He pulled out a badge to show the girls. "Did something happen up on the hill?"

Nancy glanced critically at the badge, but to all appearances, it was genuine. She held out a hand to the officer. "I'm Nancy…"

"Drew," Jason said. "Although you're here undercover."

Nancy and Bess both raised their eyebrows.

"How did you know that?" Bess asked.

"Things get around in police circles," Jason replied. "I've heard of your work, Nancy, and I have to say I was impressed enough to look into your cases a bit. I thought I recognized you when I ran into you girls earlier...or when, you ran into me. I came back to the lodge where I could use the Internet to check."

"All right," Nancy said. It always made her suspicious when someone she didn't know recognized her, although she was beginning to realize that it wasn't impossible to come across people who knew who she was. Even so, some instinct told her to be cautious around Jason. "What makes you think I'm here undercover rather than just here for a vacation, though?"

"It was pretty simple, really," Jason replied. "My first hint was when Bess here only gave your first names. Of course, that's not terribly unusual when you're meeting a stranger for the first time, but then when you cut her off when she was about to say where you're from, Nancy, really tipped me off, especially since you gave the first name that came to mind, which happened to be printed handily on my ski pole. Finally, I know for a fact that you haven't contacted the police at all since you've been here, so clearly you're trying to keep anyone from knowing who you are."

"Not bad," Nancy admitted. "I could also have not contacted the police because I'm not on a case, though, and maybe I don't like random strangers knowing my full name or where I'm from."

"It's possible," Jason said, "but I doubt that's the whole reason. Anyway, you have something to report to the police now?"

Nancy looked around her. By this time, several people were watching the group with curiosity. She turned to the woman at the desk. "Could we talk someplace privately? I think it would be better for everyone that way."

"Oh, yes, of course," the woman said. "Follow me."

She led Nancy, Bess, and Jason to a storage room with an "Employees Only" sign on the door.

"Sorry there's no place better," she said. "Now what's all this about?"

Nancy and Bess told the whole story, which both members of their audience listened closely to.

When they finished, Nancy added, "I guess this isn't really your bag if you're with Internal Affairs, Jason."

"Hopefully not," Jason replied. "Let's see here. We'll have to call in the FBI on something like this. It'll take them a while to get here. In the meantime, I'll call our detectives. We'll need to ask all of you girls some questions, so we'll need to know how to contact you. We'll also need to talk to employees here at Mount Calliope, especially ski patrol and groomers. It would probably be helpful if you started digging out names of former employees in those capacities in the last ten years. We might not contact them, but it will be good to have the information anyway. Then, of course, we'll need to talk to the owner, too. The FBI will want to talk to all these people as well. Who is the owner?"

"Penelope and Myles Spiros," the woman employee told him. "They don't live here. They live up in Denver. They own half a dozen ski resorts from what I understand."

"Well, we'll need their contact information," Jason told her. "We also need that trail where the skull was found closed indefinitely."

"I'll get right on it," the woman promised and hurried out the room.

"I'll call detectives," Jason continued. "Then I want one of you girls to show me the location. I want the other one to stay here and show the detectives when they arrive."

"I'll stay," Bess volunteered.

"Good," Jason said. "I'll go make that call and then I'll be right back."

"You know George is going to tease you about still being scared of that skull if you stay here," Nancy pointed out when Jason had left.

"The day George runs out of things to tease me about will be the day it snows in Hawaii," Bess muttered. "Anyway, I'm not scared of that skull. I just don't like being around it. But that's not why I volunteered to stay here. I just don't want to go up there with Jason."

"I thought you liked him," Nancy said.

"I did, until I found out that he's either a total creeper who's been stalking you or he's an overzealous detective who knows way more about everybody than I'm comfortable with," Bess replied. "Either way, he's more your type than mine."

"Oh, gee, thanks." Nancy made a wry face.

A few moments later, Jason returned, and he and Nancy headed up the hill again. Ski patrol offered their snowmobiles for the rest of the detectives when they arrived, but at the moment, they were all out on the mountain somewhere. Nancy and Jason decided to take the ski lift up and then ski to where Bess had found the skull.

On the way up, Nancy commented to Jason, "You certainly seem to be in a hurry to start this investigation. Why? Like you said before, it's not something that affects Internal Affairs."

"True," Jason said, but he didn't offer any explanation for a few seconds. Then he said, "I used to work homicide before I was transferred over to Internal Affairs. I guess old habits die hard."

Nancy noted his hesitation and his flimsy answer but didn't push either. Instead, she changed the subject slightly. "I'm surprised that a police department as small as Calliope has enough internal cases to justify having officers assigned solely to IA."

"Yeah, well, we don't have officers assigned to it; we have one officer. I am Internal Affairs," Jason told her.

"Really?" Nancy raised her eyebrows. Jason seemed terribly young to be a captain, let alone the sole person in charge of investigating internal issues.

"Yep," Jason went on. "I haven't been for all that long. Up until a year ago, I was a lowly sergeant on the homicide team. Then the commissioners decided we needed a full-time IA officer, and I was picked for the job. I got a promotion all the way up to captain out of it. The commissioners felt that if I'm going to be investigating other officers, I needed a high enough rank for them to take me seriously."

"A captaincy ought to do that," Nancy observed.

It didn't take them long to reach the place where George was waiting. She had sat down with her back against a tree about twenty feet away from the skull, just to make absolutely certain she didn't disrupt anything. When she saw that Nancy had brought back Jason, she raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Turns out Jason here is actually Captain Ellis of the Calliope PD," Nancy told her before she could ask any questions.

Jason greeted George briefly and then began examining the scene, being careful not to move anything. He also took pictures of the skull and the surrounding area from every angle possible.

Nancy and George watched him with interest. George had no suspicions about him; after all, this was exactly the sort of thing that she would expect a police officer to do. Nancy, however, had her arms crossed and her brows knitted. Since this wasn't the sort of thing Jason would have typically investigated, she would have expected him to just make sure no one came tramping across the scene and possibly take down her and George's contact information.

"What are you doing?" she asked finally when Jason continued snapping pictures.

"Investigating," Jason replied with a trace of annoyance in his voice.

"I meant, why is IA investigating this?" Nancy clarified.

Jason sighed. "You live up to your reputation, Detective Drew. I haven't fooled you for a minute, have I? I think I have a right to my secrets, though, especially if you're going to keep holding onto yours."

"Do you know who this is?" Nancy asked.

"I don't know anything," Jason said. "I suspect that there's a possibility that this might have something to do with a case that I'm investigating. That's all."

"Who do you expect it is, then?" George inquired.

"I really can't say at the moment," Jason insisted. "However, Nancy, if you're investigating a case that has to do with this mountain, then there's a good possibility that it has a bearing on mine."

"The mountain is the reason we're here," Nancy said. "We just came here for the skiing."

"You'll forgive me if I find it hard to believe that you being here is just a coincidence," Jason said.

"Nancy stumbles on things like this a lot more than the average person, even when she's not on a case," George told him.

Jason chuckled. "Then she's definitely stumbled on a doozy this time. This isn't the first time something strange has happened on this mountain, and if you girls know anything about any of it, I really do have to insist that you tell me."


	5. An Unexpected Request

J.M.J.

 _A/N: Thank you again for continuing to read! Thank you especially to Cherylann Rivers, ErinJordan, beachgirlsrule, max2013, and Autumn for your reviews on the last chapter! Don't worry, Hardy fans; Frank and Joe will be making their promised appearance within the next few chapters!_

 **Chapter V**

 **An Unexpected Request**

Nancy, Bess, and George were tired by the time they got back to the Warners' house that evening. Cole was working that day, and Adrienne was just setting supper on the table for herself and Serena.

"Hi, girls," Adrienne greeted them. "I wasn't sure when you'd get back, so Serena and I were going ahead with supper. There's plenty for all of us, of course; just let me get some more plates." Then she noticed how tired the girls looked. "A long day of skiing, huh? Did you have any luck on your detective work?"

George stretched her arms as she yawned and sat heavily in one of the dining chairs. "Yes, no, sort of."

Adrienne raised a questioning eyebrow and looked at Nancy.

Nancy smiled wryly. "I think what George means is that it was a long day, but we didn't get much skiing in. Actually, we spent most of the day at the police station, but it probably doesn't have anything to do with Cole's mystery."

"What happened?" Adrienne asked.

The girls related the story of the skull once again for what seemed the thousandth time that day. They were beginning to get tired of talking about it.

Then George added, "After the detectives got there, they asked us a whole bunch of questions, and then by the time they were finished with us, the FBI had gotten there. They asked us most of the same questions again, and when they were done, that Jason guy kept insisting that Nancy tell him about her case. Honestly, I'm thinking that he's the one behind it. Why else would he seem to know all about Nancy and care what she knows?"

"Jason does know something he's not telling us, but that doesn't mean he's guilty," Nancy said.

"Well, whatever he is, he's kinda creepy," Bess insisted.

"I don't know him at all," Adrienne said. "Anyway, though, let's talk about something more pleasant during supper." She glanced significantly at Serena, and her guests took her hint.

However, the girls stayed up late to talk over the happenings of the day. They were hashing and rehashing it far into the night. There was one thing that had stuck in Nancy's mind this entire time: the names of the owners of Mount Calliope.

"Spiros," she mused aloud.

"What?" Bess asked.

"Spiros," Nancy repeated. "That's the name of the owners of the ski resort. Penelope and Myles Spiros."

"What about it?" George was lying on her back on her cot, almost ready to drift off to sleep, but she opened one eye to look at Nancy.

"It's a Greek name," Nancy said.

"So?" Bess asked.

"Penelope and Myles are characters from Greek mythology," Nancy went on. "Penelope was the wife of Odysseus and Myles was a king of somewhere. Then the mountain and the town are named after Calliope, one of the Greek muses. I can't help wondering if there's some coincidence."

"If you're right, then that means that Jason is definitely involved somehow," George said.

"How do you figure that?" Bess asked.

"Jason is a character in Greek mythology, too," George told her. "He's the loser with the talking ship, the _Argo_ , who went to look for the Golden Fleece and then he married Medea and then jilted her for a younger chick and so to get revenge she murdered hers and Jason's kids."

Bess shuddered. "Ew. That's a terrible story, George. Why do you know about things like that?"

"Can I help it if not everything the Greeks wrote was rom-coms?" George shrugged.

"Jason is a really common name," Nancy pointed out. "It's totally possible for there to be someone named that and it doesn't have anything to do with anything, and that's assuming there even is anything behind all the mythological names. It could just be a coincidence."

"Or it could be why the Spiroses opened a resort in Calliope," Bess suggested. "Maybe they thought it would be cool to own a resort that fit with the same theme as their name."

"Maybe," Nancy said. "If that was the case, though, you'd think they'd do something Greek mythology-themed. Tomorrow I'm going to do some research into them and see what I can find out."

NDHBNDHBND

The next day was spent almost entirely in research of one kind or another. Nancy looked into whatever she could find about the Spiroses and their other ski resorts, while George focused on looking through the social media pages of the Calliope firefighters, as well as looking into Jason Ellis, whom she was still suspicious of. Since computers weren't Bess's forte and since Nancy and George had that base covered anyway, Bess spent all morning chatting with Adrienne and Cole and trying to see if they knew anything that they weren't saying.

All three detectives came up with blanks, though. Nancy could find no other Greek mythology connections with the Spiroses, nor anything suspicious about them at all. She still had a hunch that there was something amiss with them, but she couldn't afford to take more time on them for the present. That hunch would have to take the back burner for now. George found plenty of pictures, funny videos, and inspirational quotes, but not a single word about the union or threats or anything related to the case. While Bess thought that the Warners still seemed nervous - which was understandable - she wasn't able to pry anything new out of either of them.

The girls were just working on a new plan of action when Nancy's phone rang. The number was unfamiliar, but she answered it anyway.

"Hello, Ms. Drew. This is Captain Ellis from the Calliope PD."

"Oh, hello." Despite her casual greeting, every muscle in Nancy's body tensed as she wondered why Jason was calling her. "Can I help you with something?"

"I think so," Jason said, "as long as you're more willing to talk today than you were yesterday. I thought as a show of good faith, though, I'd tell you what I learned since yesterday."

"About the skull?" Nancy was confused; police didn't often call her, offering her information.

"That's right," Jason said. "We've already got on an ID on it. It didn't take long for the FBI guys to determine that the skull had been out there approximately five to eight years. Then they started comparing it with the dental records of people who went missing from around here in that time frame. They got a hit right away. The skull belonged to Roger Arden, Calliope's most famous missing person."

"Why's that?" Nancy asked.

"Arden vanished without a trace six years ago, come March," Jason explained. "He was last seen leaving his home to head for work, but he never arrived. Neither he nor his car was ever found, there was no sign of an accident, no witnesses came forward to report anything at all. That was back when I was working homicide. The case was so high profile and there was enough suspicion of foul play anyway that I was loaned out to work the case. We never found a thing. In fact, the only clue we had was what we didn't find."

"And what was that?" Nancy asked.

"He lived alone, you see," Jason replied. "When we searched his house for any clues, there wasn't a single book, paper, or electronic device in the house. Nothing else in the house appeared to be disturbed and no locks or windows were broken. There was just absolutely nothing that could have any information stored in it. Well, I shouldn't say that exactly. There was one sheet of paper in the entire house. Someone had written two letters in black permanent marker: M.C."

"M.C. Mount Calliope?" Nancy asked.

"Could be," Jason said. "Considering where we found the skull, that might make sense, although if he was murdered, it wouldn't make sense to for the murderer to give the location. The rumor at the time was that it had something to do with a secret society. How that one got started, I don't know, but I thought and I still think now that there might be some credence to it."

"But why would a secret society kill this Roger Arden?" Nancy asked. "I doubt they'd target someone without a good reason."  
"And chances are, if it was a secret society, that they killed him to keep those reasons secret, in which case, they've been very successful," Jason replied. "I really don't know why Arden would have been a target, other than that he was a prominent citizen of Calliope. He was our fire chief."

The words struck Nancy at once. "The fire chief? There doesn't seem to be much reason to murder a fire chief."

"Someone had a reason," Jason said. "The FBI boys are positive that this was a murder."

"How can they be so sure?"

"For one thing, when a person dies in an accident or of natural causes, their head doesn't usually end up apart from the rest of their body," Jason told her. "So far, we haven't found any of the rest of him. Of course, with the snow, it's impossible to say for sure that the rest of the bones aren't out there. We won't be able to make a really thorough search until spring. The other thing, though, is that marks at the base of the skull make the forensics team think that the head was cut off with a blade of some sort."

"And why exactly are you telling me this?" Nancy asked.

"Because you're staying with Cole Warner, who was a firefighter under Chief Arden, and you and your friends discovered Arden's skull," Jason said. "Perhaps Cole knows something about Arden's disappearance and has asked you to investigate."

"No," Nancy replied. "He's never even mentioned Chief Arden to me."

Jason paused a moment and then said, "Ms. Drew, I would like to talk to you in person again. I don't mind telling you that if you withhold information related to any criminal activities around this area, then you are putting yourself and the people of Calliope in danger."

"Is that a threat?" Nancy asked.

"A warning," Jason clarified. "Please come in and talk to me as soon as possible."

"I really don't have anything more to add to what I've already told you. If I happen to learn anything about Roger Arden, I'll let you know. Otherwise, I don't see what we could accomplish by talking again."

Jason abruptly changed his tactics. "Well, if you're really not working on a case right now, then I'd like to ask you to help me with this one. You're in a unique position that none of my officers could duplicate, and you and I working together might be the fastest way to solve this case."


	6. Revelations

J.M.J.

 _A/N: Thank you so much for continuing to read! In particular, thank you to ErinJordan, Cherylann Rivers, max2013, beachgirlsrule, and Highflyer for your reviews since I posted the last chapter! The entrance for the Hardys is drawing nearer..._

 **Chapter VI**

 **Revelations**

The officer at the desk of Calliope Police Headquarters looked up at Nancy and smiled pleasantly as the amateur detective approached. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, I'm here to see Captain Ellis," Nancy replied. "He's expecting me. My name is Nancy Drew."

"Just a moment." The officer picked up a phone and dialed an extension.

As he told of Nancy's visit, Nancy thought back with a small smile to Bess and George's reactions to her announcement that she was going to meet Jason. Bess had shook her head and made dire predictions about purposely meeting "creepy stalkers", while George had volunteered to act as look-out. Nancy had assured them that there would be no danger and no need for a look-out at a police station, but for all her confident words, she couldn't help feeling a little apprehension as she waited to be directed into Jason's office.

Back home in River Heights, it wasn't unusual for the police to ask for Nancy's help in a case. While a few officers considered her an unwelcome rival, Chief McGinnis and most of the other officers recognized that she had a definite knack for detective work. However, whenever she worked on a case away from home, the police tended to be more skeptical of the abilities of an eighteen-year-old girl. It was odd that Jason was so insistent on having Nancy work with him. She wondered if, perhaps, more than anything, Jason wanted to keep an eye on her so that she wouldn't interfere with his investigation.

The desk officer broke into her thoughts to give her directions to Jason's office and Nancy thanked him before setting off down the hallway. The frosted glass door to Jason's office was blank, but Nancy could still see the faint outline of a name of another captain that had been removed. Evidently, Jason hadn't had time to get his own name painted on his door.

"I'm glad you came, Ms. Drew." Jason stood up to greet her as she entered the office.

"Captain Ellis," Nancy replied as she took a seat across the desk from him. "What exactly did you want to talk to me about?"

"About Cole Warner, mostly," Jason said. "How do you know him?"

Nancy hesitated, considering whether it would be better to tell her cover story or the truth. She decided the truth was better. "He's a cousin of a friend of mine. He asked me to come help him with a mystery."

A smile played at the corners of Jason's mouth. "So I was right; you are here on a case. What exactly is the case?"

"First," Nancy said, "why are you interested in Cole? He's not a police officer, so if he's suspected of something, it seems one of the other departments besides Internal Affairs would be investigating him."

"Good point," Jason admitted. "The fact of the matter is that he's not suspected of anything, except possibly withholding information in a police investigation. I happen to know that he's been meeting with the chief suspect in an ongoing investigation that I'm working on, but he denies this. To me, that spells 'covering up'."

"Or he doesn't want the police interfering in his personal life," Nancy pointed out.

"He seemed pretty nervous both times I talked to him," Jason insisted.

"That seems to be the way he is at the moment," Nancy told him. "He's under a lot of stress right now."

"That may be," Jason said. "However, the fact remains that he has been seen meeting a my suspect in out-of-the-way places multiple times, but he denies even knowing this person. Whether this person is a friend of his whom he's trying to protect or if he's involved in criminal dealings, I'm going to need his cooperation. I'm hoping you will help me with that."

"You want me to spy on my host?" Nancy asked.

"You don't have to make it sound so underhanded." Jason grinned lop-sidedly, but then his face froze as he looked over Nancy's shoulder.

Nancy glanced behind her to see what it was that had caught Jason's attention, but all she saw was people walking past in the hallway.

Jason leaned forward over his desk and spoke in a low tone. "Listen, Ms. Drew. I know your reputation. When I first got the appointment to Internal Affairs and got this whole mess handed to me, I contacted Fenton Hardy to see if he could help with the investigation. He couldn't; he had some other important cases to work on. He offered that his sons might be able to help me out, and when I found they were teenagers, I'm afraid I dismissed the suggestion a little too...Well, I might have laughed at him."

"That considerate of you," Nancy said dryly.

"I've realized since then that that was a mistake," Jason told her. "Too late, of course, but I see it now. I did some research on the Hardy Boys and came to find out that they've solved more cases than I have. In researching them, I couldn't fail to stumble across your name and reputation as well. I've had to swallow all my pride to ask you to help, but...I need someone I can trust. You're the only one I can."

"Can't you trust the rest of the police force?" Nancy asked.

"I would trust any one of them to save my life if it came down to it," Jason said. "I'd trust any of them with the keys to my house or to babysit my kids, if I had any. But there's not a single one that I would swear wouldn't get me killed if they found out what I know."

"That certainly sounds ominous," Nancy said. "What's going on?"

"I don't _think_ there's a secret society at work in this town; I _know_ it." Jason sat back and wrapped his hands around his knee. "I've known it since Roger Arden first disappeared. It was nonsense to think it was an accident - if it had been, we would found his car somewhere along his route to work, which is entirely in town. He wasn't the sort of man to pack up and leave on his own, and if it was an ordinary murder done by an individual, they couldn't have made the car disappear completely. And then that paper with the initials M.C. on it; could there be any other explanation besides a secret society?

"I've spent the last six years investigating it every time I had spare minute. My superiors knew this, and they kept me snowed under with cases. Honestly, I think they made up some of them to keep me from having time to look into the Arden case."

"Seriously?" Nancy asked.

"I know, I know." Jason sighed. "I sound like some sort of paranoid, crazy person, but the truth is, I'm scared. It wasn't so bad before the threats started, or even until the threats started getting more serious."

"Threats?" Nancy repeated, sitting up a little straighter.

"Yes." Jason opened a drawer in his desk and took out a stack of envelopes. "I've got quite a collection of them now. I started getting them about three months ago, before my promotion. I've gotten at least one every day since then. They show up in my car, in my apartment, in my office, in my seat in restaurants if I step away from it for a few minutes, tucked between the pages of my reports if I leave them out in the open. Anywhere, really, and no one ever sees who puts them there."

Nancy took a few of the threatening messages from the envelopes. They matched the ones that Cole had been receiving exactly, except for one thing: there was no mention of any unions in this one. The writer was merely threatening Jason to leave the area.

"Of course, I took this straight to the chief right away," Jason went on. "He dismissed it as a prank. I investigated on my own. After two frustrating weeks of not getting anywhere, I started leaving my own notes in the places where this other person was putting them, telling them what I thought of them and where they could put their threats. The very next day, I found windshield of my car smashed along with another note that said that if I didn't want the same thing to happen to me, I'd give up the investigation and leave."

"That was a long time ago," Nancy said. "Have they ever actually tried to hurt you?"

Jason grinned. "No. That was the most violent they ever got. See, I went to the police commissioners next to tell them about this and how I thought some of my fellow officers might be involved, since the notes showed inside headquarters. They told me that a few other officers had reported getting similar threats, and that's when they decided we needed an Internal Affairs division and put me in charge. They gave me a promotion to captain partly so that officers who used to have a higher rank than me would respect and cooperate with me, true, but also so that they couldn't order me around and I'd be free to spend all my time on this case. The commissioners also made it clear that if anything happened to me, such as me conveniently disappearing or turning up murdered, they'd call in the State Police. Apparently, whoever is behind these threats doesn't care much for that idea, because even though the threats haven't stopped, no one's even tried to hurt me or my property since then."

"Why did the commissioners choose you?" Nancy asked.

"Because I'm the only one this secret society seems to consider a completely lost cause," Jason explained. "My only options have ever been to leave town or die. Everyone else who has gotten threats has been given a third option: to join the local police union."

"Somehow I had a guess that might be the case," Nancy said.

"Oh? How?" Jason asked.

"Because the fire department has been having the same problem," Nancy told him. "That's what Cole asked me to investigate."

"The fire department, too," Jason muttered. "That makes sense."

"Please tell me how," Nancy requested. "Why threaten someone to join a union of all things?"

"Because it's not a union," Jason said. "I mean, it is, but the local unions around here are the most ineffective and poorly run unions in the history of unions. That's because they're a front; they're a way of gauging who can be trusted and who needs to be eliminated, as well as an excuse to meet."

"For the secret society?" Nancy asked. "But if they have honest people join…"

"Then they'll never see anything but the legitimate union part of it," Jason told her. "If any of them get snoopy, they get eliminated. It's not too hard to do with police officers, you know, and a firefighter wouldn't be too hard to get rid of without raising suspicion, either. And, of course, the advantages of having as many members of both the police and fire departments in the secret society aren't hard to imagine. If you have them and the city officials, and you have the city. Then they can do whatever they want, and no one can stop them."

"The police makes sense, but why the fire department?" Nancy asked.

"I imagine so that when one of the enemies of the secret society finds themselves the victim of an unfortunate 'accident' or their house in flames, the fire department won't in any hurry to respond."

"All right." Nancy took a deep breath, trying to process all of this. "What do you want me to do?"

"The suspect Cole Warner has been meeting with is Sergeant William Valence," Jason explained. "He's a patrol sergeant and the founding member of the police union. He goes skiing up at Mount Calliope all the time, except when the ski resort's closed. When that happens, he goes hiking up there. That's what I was doing there when we met. I'm not much of a skier myself, but I try to keep an eye on him up there anyway. I've seen him meeting with a lot of people, including Cole Warner. I've seen them ride the lift up together and then split at the top and meet in the lodge or any other place where they could talk briefly and then separate." He rubbed his chin. "If Cole is still receiving threats, he must not be one of them yet, but they're working on him pretty hard. We need to find out why, and maybe, if he turns out to be trustworthy, we could convince him to act as our agent in this."

"That would be risky," Nancy said. "Cole is pretty nervous as it is. If he was to act as undercover agent, he'd give himself away for sure."

"Do you have a better suggestion, then?" Jason asked.

"Possibly." Nancy paused to think a moment, and then went on, "Are there women in the police or fire departments?"

"We've got several women officers," Jason told her. "Then, of course, we also have women in the building working in all sorts other positions: dispatch, DMV, administrative assistants, media liaisons, and just anything else. There are no women firefighters, but the department also has women working in administrative positions. Oh, and our one and only paramedic in the department is a woman, as are a number of the volunteer EMTs."

"Have any of them received threats?" Nancy asked.

Jason thought for a few moments. "Not that I know of. What are you getting at?"

"A lot of times, secret societies are for men only," Nancy said, "or, sometimes, for women only. It sounds like this is one of those. In that case, our undercover agents - or agents - will need to be male. It will be hard to pull off and definitely dangerous, but I think I know just the people for this job."


	7. Making Strides

J.M.J.

 _A/N: Once again, thank you for continuing to read! Thank you especially to max2013, beachgirlsrule, ErinJordan, and Cherylann Rivers for your reviews on the last chapter!_

 **Chapter VII**

 **Making Strides**

"So, you really think Mount Calliope is the factor that everything in this case is hinging on?" George asked as she, Bess, and Nancy sat together on the chair lift.

"I don't know what's going on," Nancy admitted. "Jason's story rings true, and he is a cop, but I don't know how much he really knows and how much he's guessing at."

"Or he could just be making the whole thing up to have an excuse to stalk you some more," Bess suggested.

Nancy rolled her eyes, a gesture she reserved for only the most annoying of situations. "I doubt that. It's not like he was even hitting on me."

"As if you'd even notice," Bess said. "Seriously, Nancy, for someone who's usually the most observant person I know, you can be pretty oblivious when guys are trying to flirt with you."

"That's because she has better things to do than think about guys all the time," George replied. "But really, Nancy, are you sure you can trust Jason? You've got to admit, there's something weird about him."

"I'm not sure, so I'm still going to be careful around him, but his story seems to fit." Nancy paused. "I realize he's not telling me everything he knows and that this could very well be a case of 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer', but I think it's the best plan to give him the benefit of the doubt for the moment. If I'm any judge of character, he's honest and well-meaning, but also inexperienced, more than a little stuck on himself, and running scared.."

"Hmm." George sniffed. "This town has serious issues. Secret societies trying to take it over, disguised as labor unions. Half the police and fire departments are corrupt, and the other half is being frightened into submitting. People vanishing without a trace. And now one of the highest ranking officers in their police department has less experience than an eighteen-year-old amateur. No offense, Nancy."

"None taken." Nancy grinned. "But maybe don't mention the case too loud. If half of what Jason says is true and anyone finds out we know it, the next heads they're going to find on this mountain will be ours."

"Pleasant thought," Bess replied dryly. "So, when are the reinforcements going to get here?"

"They said they would be on the mountain tomorrow," Nancy told her.

Several days had passed since Nancy's meeting with Jason Ellis. During that meeting, when Jason had mentioned the possibility of using Cole Warner as a secret agent in the secret society, Nancy had immediately thought of someone who could do the job better: Frank and Joe Hardy, teenage brothers and friends of Nancy, who, like her, were amateur detectives. The Hardys and Nancy didn't typically make a habit of calling each other in to help with their cases, but when they did, it was always exciting for all three of them to work together.

Since the meeting with Jason, Nancy, Bess, and George had spent every day on Mount Calliope with their eyes and ears open for anything suspicious at all. So far, they had seen nothing, although they did observe, as Jason had told Nancy, that Sergeant Valence spent a lot of time skiing on the mountain.

In fact, just as the girls were getting off the lift, George murmured to the others, "Suspect at three o'clock."

Nancy and Bess glanced in that direction and saw Sergeant Valence adjusting his ski goggles before he took off down a double black diamond trail.

Bess groaned and looked down at her knees and calves. "Sorry about this, guys," she apologized to them. "I promise we'll take a nice, hot bath tonight and maybe get rid of some of this stiffness."

George made a face. "That's so weird, Bess."

"Never mind that right now," Nancy told them. "Let's not let Sergeant Valence out of our sight."

She pushed herself off, and Bess and George quickly followed. Although they weren't beginner skiers by any means, they were hard pressed to keep up with Valence on the steep trail. About a quarter of the way down, the trail made a sharp turn, and the suspect disappeared around it. All three detectives pushed themselves harder, but when they reached the bend in the trail, Valence was nowhere in sight. They came to an abrupt halt.

"Where could have he gone?" Bess asked. "I mean, he's fast, but he's not that fast that he would have been out of sight already."

"Could have he turned off the trail into the trees?" George asked.

"Possibly," Nancy agreed. "Let's see if we can find any tracks."

Nancy took one side of the trail and Bess and George took the other. They went slowly, watching for any sign that someone had left the trail, either on skis or in ski boots. They spotted several places where someone had evidently had a wipe-out, but they didn't see anywhere where someone had left the trail and stayed off it.

"I don't get it," George said, looking back up the stretch of trail once they had come to the next bend. "I guess he really was that fast."

"I guess." Nancy was doubtful that that was even possible, but she could think of no other explanation. Valence couldn't have just vanished.

NDHBNDHBND

Mid-morning the next day, the girls were back out on Mount Calliope again. They had made one run already without spotting Valence or any other suspect or seeing the Hardys. In order to increase the Hardys' chances of making successful undercover agents, Nancy had arranged with them that the only contact they would have would be seemingly chance meetings on Mount Calliope. However, so far, they hadn't put in an appearance yet.

Nancy, Bess, and George were in line for the ski lift for a second trip up the mountain when Jason pulled into line behind them and asked, "Mind if I ride up with you?"

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Nancy asked in a voice too quiet for any eavesdroppers to hear.

Jason shrugged. "These people must already know that you met with me, and we need to talk for a minute or two."

Once they were on the ski lift and out of earshot of anyone else, Jason asked, "Have you made any progress on the case, Ms. Drew?"

"Hardly any," Nancy admitted. "We've seen Sergeant Valence up here several times, but we didn't see him meeting with anybody or anything like that."

"What about your people you called in? Are they here yet?" Jason asked.

"They should be," Nancy told him, "but we haven't made contact yet."

Jason bit his lip. "I have to admit, I feel a bit foolish calling in you and now Frank and Joe Hardy after my first reaction to them possibly helping me with case. Besides that, the chief is going to skin me alive when he finds I've been recruiting teenagers to help with this case."

"Unless he's involved himself," George pointed out.

"That'd be even worse," Jason asserted. "Then he might literally skin us all alive."

"What progress have you made?" Nancy asked.

"I've made some strides, thanks to your information and suggestions," Jason said. "I went around to some of our women officers and employees, like you said, to see if any of them have received any of these threats. As you suspected, it doesn't seem to be an equal opportunities secret society."

"Well, that narrows down our suspect base to only the male half of the population of Calliope," George observed. "If we can keep halving our suspect pool, we'll have our man in no time."

"Men," Jason corrected her. "A secret society with one member wouldn't be much of a society."

"It would be pretty secret, though," George joked.

"Anything else?" Nancy asked. They were nearing the top of the lift, which would close their window for confidential conversation.

"Yes," Jason said. "With your information that the fire department is also under attack by this secret society, I approached several of the firefighters. I interviewed them carefully so that hopefully they don't realize just how much I know. Every one of them denied receiving threats or knowing anything about any of this, except one. Aiden Rocha. He's a new recruit, barely out of high school. I didn't tell him how I found out about the threats to the fire department, but then he asked me point-blank whether Cole Warner had told me. I told him that he hadn't, and Rocha practically hit the roof. Apparently, he and the others who had gotten threats worked it out that, since going to the police appeared to be dangerous, they'd pick just one man to be the go-between with the police. Cole volunteered."

"He volunteered?" Nancy repeated. "But this entire time, he's been adamant about not going to the police."

"I thought that was strange, too, based on what you'd told me," Jason agreed. "Rocha was very definite on that point, though, that Cole had volunteered."

"I hate to think that Cole might be involved, but he is looking pretty suspicious," Nancy said. "I think we'd better start keeping a closer eye on him."

"There's no one in a better position to do that than you three," Jason told them. "You have my personal cell number. If you need or learn anything, call that instead of my office phone. It's too easy for people to listen in on that line."

Nancy only had time to acknowledge the request before the ski lift arrived at the top of the hill. The four passengers unloaded, and then Jason went one way and the girls went the other.

"I sure hope for Ned's sake that Cole isn't involved," Bess said. "That would be terrible for him. And even worse for Adrienne. She's so nice."

"That doesn't mean Cole couldn't be up to something," George pointed out. "You've got to admit, he's been acting suspicious since we got here, and this latest information only makes it look worse." She narrowed her eyes. "If we can trust Jason, that is. He could be trying to start us off on a wild goose chase."

"It's always possible," Nancy admitted. "Still, it won't hurt to see if we can get Cole to explain this."

By this time, the girls had picked an intermediate trail and started going down. They were skiing slowly, as they were all thinking more about the case than the skiing. Several people passed them on their way down.

"Look out!"

The shout broke into the girls thoughts, and they paused to look behind them. A short distance above where they were standing, a skier was shooting downhill straight at them, leaving them no time to get out of the way.


	8. A Troubling Disappearance

J.M.J.

 _A/N: Thank you again for reading! Thank you especially to Cherylann River, ErinJordan, max2013, and beachgirlsrule for your reviews on the last chapter!_

 **Chapter VIII**

 **A Troubling Disappearance**

The skier hurtling down the hill toward Nancy and her friends evidently didn't know what he was doing. The girls tried to scramble out of the way, but since they had come to a complete stop, they couldn't get moving again in time. At what seemed the last possible moment, the skier veered to the side and then pulled up to a stop in front of the girls.

He pulled off his goggles and grinned. "You three really thought I was going to crash into you, didn't you?"

"Joe Hardy, you idiot!" George stormed as she recognized him. "What were you trying to do?"

"Make contact without it looking suspicious." Joe shrugged innocently, but he still had a mischievous gleam in his eye.

"A moment later, Frank, who had been skiing at a much more reasonable rate, had reached the group. "I told Joe not to do it," he told the girls apologetically after he had greeted them.

"Hey, meeting in a chance skiing accident is a great way to strike up a conversation with people that you supposedly don't know," Joe demanded himself.

"We know," Nancy agreed. "As a matter of fact, that how we met our police contact on this case."

"See, Frank?" Joe said.

"You really didn't have to encourage him, Nance," Frank said. "Anyway, let's get down to business. You told us about the secret society, the unions, the corrupt cops, the threats, and the former fire chief. Have you learned anything more since then?"

"A little," Nancy replied and told him about the findings that Jason had reported to her. "Do you have your plans all figured out for your part of the investigation?"

Frank nodded. "We're here using fake names. Actually, we had some of our friends make the hotel reservations for us. Fortunately, printing out the confirmation was good enough for the hotel so we didn't have to show ID or anything. Anyway, during this case, I'm Phil."

"And I'm Chet," Joe added. "We figured this was the best way in case someone at the hotel is caught up in the whole secret society and would leak our names to the crooks."

"How are you going to convince them to let you join their society?" Bess asked. "That is the plan, isn't it?"

"We've been talking it over, and I think our plan should work," Frank said. "Joe and I have taken first aid courses before, and so I think we know enough to pass for EMTs if we're not examined too carefully."

"We're going to crash one of their union meetings," Joe took up the explanation. "We'll say that we're planning on taking a paramedic course and getting certified. Since we'd heard that they needed paramedics around here, we're scoping it out while we're here on vacation. From there, we're hoping they'll approach us with their whole secret society business."

"That seems a little risky to me," George commented. "What if you two don't look shady enough so they decide to rub you out instead of invite you in? Jason seems to think they do stuff like that, for what his ideas are worth."

"We'll be fine," Joe assured her. "We can act pretty shady when the need arises."

Frank rolled his eyes. "We'll be careful. If the plan's not working, we'll back off."

"We should have a Plan B in case that happens," Nancy said. "Maybe we could still salvage the case anyway."

"Uh, I, for one, don't think we should mess around with people who chop off other people's heads too much," Bess pointed out.

"We'll probably be watched constantly after we go to the union meeting," Frank said. "We probably will be as soon as we inquire about it, for that matter. We'll need a way to communicate that they won't be able to catch us talking to each other."

"Right," Nancy agreed. "They apparently use the ski lift for that purpose, but we'd still be seen riding it together, and the less contact we have, the better. We should meet in different places every time, and keep the meeting short. We can use texting for some of our communication, but of course we'll want to meet in person now and then, just to make sure we're texting who we think we are. We can sort out where we'll meet over texts, though."

"Sounds good to me," Frank agreed. "We'll let you know when we find out when the meeting is."

The Hardys waved and continued down the hill.

NDHBNDHBND

Nancy, Bess, and George spent another couple of hours skiing, but in all that time, they didn't see Valence or any other suspects, and so they decided to call it a day early and headed back to the Warner home. Cole was on duty that day, and so the girls weren't surprised to see that his car wasn't there. However, Adrienne's car was also not in evidence. Apparently, she was out and about somewhere.

Nancy unlocked the door with the spare key that the Warners had loaned her, and they went inside. They each made some hot cocoa and then sat down in the living room to talk about the case.

"We're not making much progress," George complained. "At the rate we're going at, we'll never get to the bottom of this whole secret society thing."

Bess took a sip of her hot cocoa. "Now that Frank and Joe are here, things should speed up a lot."

"Yeah." George made a face. "I still wish we could have done it all ourselves. Now the Hardys are just going to get to do everything."

"I have a hunch there's still going to be plenty for the three of us to do," Nancy said. "Our biggest focus right now should be Cole. How much does he know and what is he trying to hide from us?"

"What makes you so sure he's hiding anything?" Bess asked. "I mean, sure, he's been acting nervous since we got here, but that's to be expected under the circumstances."

"There's his whole hang-up about not going to the police," George pointed out.

"He was threatened not to go to them," Bess countered.

"But if we can trust Jason, then Cole agreed to talk to the police on behalf of the other firefighters who had been threatened," Nancy said. "Why would he agree to do that and then not do it?"

There was a rattle at the door, and a moment later, Adrienne came into the room, a distracted, worried look on her face. The girls greeted her, but she acknowledge. Instead, all she said was, "Oh, good, you're back already. Is Serena here?"

"No," Nancy told her. "Shouldn't she be at school now?"

Adrienne shook her head. "I went to pick her up. They told me she walked home with some of her friends. She never walks home, but even if she did, either I would have seen her driving home or she would be here now."

"Maybe she went to one of her friends' houses," Bess suggested.

"She wouldn't do that without asking first," Adrienne said. "But I'll call all their parents. I don't know what else she would have done…" She cut her words off abruptly, and it was obvious to the girls that the same alarming thought had occurred to her that they all were thinking.

Adrienne placed several calls in quick succession to the parents of her daughter's various friends. Serena had not come home with any of them. Adrienne's hands were shaking now as she turned to the girls. "What should we do?"

"Try not to panic," Nancy encouraged her. "Maybe there was a mix-up of some kind. Serena might still be at the school somehow."

They all doubted this, including Adrienne, but it was something, and so she placed a call to the school. They informed her again that Serena had left school on foot with some of her friends.

"How far away is the school?" Bess asked.

"Only a few blocks," Adrienne told her. "She could walk home, I suppose. I just don't want her to with this whole threat thing going on."

"Does she have any friends who live between here and there?" Bess continued. "She could have walked there, and it might have taken her off the beaten path a little and that's why you didn't see her coming home. Her friend's parents might somehow not realize that she's there, or she might have not gone in and that's why they didn't see her."

"There are a couple," Adrienne said. "Elsie and Summer. They both lives a few blocks out of the way, so I suppose it's possible."

"Let's drive around and see if we can find her," Nancy suggested. "George, you stay here in case she comes back while we're gone. If we don't find her, though, we'd better go to the police."

Nancy and Bess climbed into Adrienne's SUV with her, and they started cruising around the blocks near the Warner home and the school. They also stopped at the houses of Serena's two friends. Elsie and Summer confirmed that they were the friends that Serena had walked partway home with, but they both said that Serena had gone on towards her own house by herself.

"We couldn't have missed her," Adrienne said as she went back to the car with Nancy and Bess. Her eyes were brimming with tears.

"We'd better call the police," Nancy said. "I'll do it for you." She took out her phone and called Jason Ellis's personal cell.

When Jason heard about the latest development, he was quiet for a long time. "I wasn't expecting something like this," he admitted finally. "How old did you say the girl is?"

"Seven," Nancy told him.

"Okay. Okay." Nancy could hear Jason take in a deep breath. "We're going to have to tread even more carefully on this one. You say Cole's at work?"

"Uh-huh."

"Call him. Get him home right away. I'll meet you at the Warner house. No. If the secret society has the girl, they'll make some sort of contact with Cole soon. They'll know if I show up at his house. Let me think."

"Should we wait until they make contact before we decide anything?" Nancy asked. "Then, at least, we'll know what they want."

"I don't know. I don't know." Jason sounded genuinely distraught. "I've never dealt with kidnappers before. Just the aftermath a few times. I, uh...I'll call the FBI. There are several agents still in town investigating the whole skull thing. They'll know how to handle this, we can trust them, and the secret society hopefully won't recognize them. I'll have them meet you at the Warner house."

"That sounds like the best plan," Nancy agreed. "I'll let you know what develops."

By this time, they had reached the house. Nancy was telling Adrienne that she should call her husband as they went up to the front door. George met them on the porch.

"She didn't come back?" Adrienne asked, her last hope draining from her.

George shook her head. "But somebody else came while you were gone. They left a note, but I figured I'd better not touch it."

"Where is it? Who left it?" Nancy asked.

George beckoned for the others to follow her. She led them to the back door and opened it, revealing an arrow with its head sunk into the doorframe.


	9. Setting the Pieces

J.M.J.

 _A/N: Thank you so much for continuing to read! In particular, thank you to Cherylann Rivers, ErinJordan, beachgirlsrule, and max2013 for your reviews on the last chapter!_

 **Chapter IX**

 **Setting the Pieces**

Cole was seated on a couch in his living room, massaging his temples while his face was completely green. Adrienne was seated next to him, but she wasn't leaning against him for comfort. Rather, she was sitting with her face in her hands, crying softly. Nancy, Bess, and George stood behind them, watching both them and the FBI agents who were standing in front of them.

The two agents had arrived soon after Cole had. Evidently, Jason had given them a complete account of what he knew and what he guessed at. Nancy felt any doubts she had about Jason evaporating, and even though the whole situation had taken an abrupt turn for the worst, it was some consolation to know that she now had several people she could trust.

Agent Elena Sokolawski had taken charge of the questioning while Agent Parker Harris was recording the conversation with a handheld recorder he was holding. They had already gotten most of the details about Serena's disappearance, and George was telling them about the arrow now.

"We'll go take a look at it," Agent Sokolawski said.

George led the way to the back door and pointed out the arrow embedded in the doorframe. She also pointed out the note that was still wrapped around the shaft. Nancy had thought that since the agents would be coming soon anyway, it would be best to leave the arrow exactly as they had found it.

"Did you see who shot the arrow?" Agent Sokolawski asked.

"No," George told her. "I heard the thump and came running to see what had happened. By the time I got here, the person was gone. I thought about trying to look for them, but if they're running around, shooting arrows, it seemed like that might not be the best idea."

Agent Sokolawski gave no answer. She took several pictures of the arrow and then reached up and carefully untied the string that bound the note to the shaft. The message was short and had been typed on a computer. It read:

 _Warner, call off your detectives or your daughter will die. M.C._

Adrienne gave a strangled cry and broke down sobbing. Cole looked even more sick than ever. Nancy, Bess, and George exchanged sober glances. This meant that the secret society knew who they were and why they were there. They might even know about Frank and Joe.

Agent Harris was obviously thinking the same thing as he broke his silence to say, "It looks like the three of you aren't as undercover as you thought you were."

"Who is M.C.?" Agent Sokolawski directed the question to Cole.

"I don't know," Cole muttered.

Agent Sokolawski holded her arms. "Look, this is no time for playing games. Captain Ellis told me that M.C. are the same initials that were found at Fire Chief Arden's home after he disappeared. If the same people who killed him have your daughter, then they're not bluffing when they say they'll kill her. If you don't cooperate with us, you'll have blown your daughter's only chance of rescue."

"I swear I don't know!" Cole burst out. "If I did know, do you think I'd keep it to myself?"

"Captain Ellis seems to think that you know something about all of this," Agent Sokolawski prodded him.

Cole threw up his hands. "I don't even know this Captain Ellis. I've never talked to him. For all I know, he could be part of this secret society you keep talking about."

"Captain Ellis is the head of Internal Affairs for the Calliope Police Department," Agent Sokolawski informed him. "He has been specifically assigned to investigate threats delivered to various members of the police department. He learned from Ms. Drew here that these threats are identical to the ones being delivered to members of the fire department."

Cole shook his head. "Look, I don't know anything about secret societies or M.C. or what happened to Chief Arden. Do you think that if I'd known even one tenth of the stuff you've been talking about I would have stayed in this crazy place with my wife and daughter? I would have cleared out the second I heard it."

"Someone was sending you threats against yourself and your family and you didn't 'clear out'," Agent Sokolawski reminded him. "You didn't even go to the police about it."

"That's because they're the ones who have been sending the threats!" Complete silence followed this revelation as everyone in the room stared at Cole in shock. He bowed his head and rubbed his temple again before adding in a softer voice, "I caught a police officer, a Sergeant Valence, delivering one of those notes to another firefighter, Oliver Cooke, early on. I confronted him about it and it got ugly for a few minutes. We agreed to meet up on Mount Calliope. It took a couple of meetings, but we finally made a deal. He agreed not to hurt me, my family, or any of the other firefighters or their families if I made sure none of us went to legitimate authorities about all of this. I didn't even have to join their crazy union anymore. They kept sending the threats, but that was more to keep up appearances than anything else. I told the other firemen that I'd handle going to the police, and that seemed all right with all of them."

"Then why did you call me in?" Nancy asked. "If you had it all worked out, wasn't calling me in dangerous?"

Cole sighed. "I wouldn't have called you in, but I got backed into a corner. Another fireman, Dan Puckett, could see that the police weren't doing anything. He started talking about bringing in a private detective. I couldn't let him do that, so I told him I'd take care of it. I remembered Ned telling me about your detective work, Nancy, and so I thought you'd be a good compromise. I could give you some false leads to track down, Dan would think I really had a detective working on the case, and Valence and his crowd wouldn't realize someone your age was a detective. I didn't think you'd go behind my back and go to the police anyway."

"That sort of just happened," Nancy said.

"Is there anything else you can add to that?" Agent Sokolawski asked.

"No. That's all I know." Cole buried his face in his hands. "I thought we were safe. I would have never stayed here if I had known it wasn't safe."

"You said that Sergeant Valence told you you didn't have to join the union now?" Nancy asked. When Cole nodded, she went on, "Did they still want you to join, though?"

"Yeah, I guess," Cole replied. "What difference does it make?"

"Possibly a lot of difference." Nancy turned to the two agents. "I have a plan, but we need to talk this over in private."

NDHBNDHBND

"That's a terribly risky plan." Agent Harris shook his head.

He and Agent Sokolawski were sitting in the front seat of their car, turned backwards so that they could see Nancy, who was sitting in the back while she explained her idea.

"These two boys you're talking about," Agent Harris went on. "They're, what? Fifteen, sixteen?"

"Frank's eighteen and Joe's seventeen," Nancy corrected him.

"And you're right in there, too, aren't you?" Agent Harris asked.

"Yes," Nancy admitted.

Agent Sokolawski rolled her eyes at her partner. "Parker, it doesn't matter how old the person who came up with this plan is. All that matters is what plan has the best chance of working. We've got what looks like a secret society and they're holding a seven-year-old hostage. Any plan is going to be risky."

"Yeah, but putting the fate of that seven-year-old in the hands of a bunch of teenagers?" Agent Harris asked. "What kind of an idea is that?"

"We're not putting anything in anybody's hands," Agent Sokolawski told him. "Frank and Joe Hardy are the only people around here who might potentially still have covers. I've worked with their dad before, too. If they're anything like him, they'll be capable of pulling this off, especially with the help that we and Captain Ellis are going to give them."

"I still don't like it," Agent Harris insisted. "Why don't we call in one of our own agents?"

"The timing would look bad now," Agent Sokolawski said. "Arriving after the kidnapping would look suspicious. Since the Hardys arrived before the kidnapping and since they definitely don't look like FBI agents, they're our best shot for pulling this off. Are they staying at the lodge on Mount Calliope, Ms. Drew?"

"I think so, but I don't know for sure," Nancy replied. "Wherever they're staying, they're going by the names Phil Cohen and Chet Morton, though."

Agent Sokolawski made a note of that. "We'll find them on our own, then. That will look better anyway. It won't be a very nice trick, but don't tip them off, Ms. Drew. The more surprised they are, the better."

"They'll definitely be surprised," Nancy said. "We'll get right on buying our plane tickets. Are you sure you can work things out with the airline?"

"No problem," Agent Sokolawski assured her.

NDHBNDHBND

Joe flopped on his bed in the room he and Frank were sharing at the Mount Calliope Lodge. The boys had stayed out on the slopes until even the night skiing was closed in hopes of seeing something pertaining to the case, but they had learned nothing. Joe groaned.

"I don't think I'll ever be able to walk again."

Frank had his laptop open on his lap while he sat cross-legged on his own bed. "It wasn't a very productive day," he admitted. "Once we can find out when and where these unions meet, we should start making progress."

"I've been thinking about that." Joe rolled over so he could prop himself up on his elbows. "What if this so-called union doesn't meet very often? Like, what if they only meet once a month and their last meeting was just last week? We can't just wait around forever for their meeting. We need a back-up plan for that, too."

Frank bit his lip. "That's true. What we have to do is try to meet one of the members of the union. We have the list from Nancy, but that might be suspicious if we go straight to one of the members. Maybe we should try the actual paramedic they have here: Leilani Fischer."

Joe looked doubtful. "Nancy said she didn't think any women were involved."

Frank shrugged. "If she's not in the union, at we'll be keeping up…"

His words were cut off by the door being suddenly kicked in. Both boys jumped to their feet as two men and a woman in bullet-proof vest and pointing handguns at them burst into the room.

"Face down on the floor," one of the men ordered in a no-nonsense voice.

Frank and Joe stared blankly at them for a fraction of a second and then scrambled to obey. Whoever these people were, they didn't look like the sort of people you argued with.

One of the men holstered his gun and patted them down. "They're clean," he announced as he snapped handcuffs on each of them and helped them to their feet.

"What's going on?" Joe demanded. "Who are you people?"

"Agent Harris of the FBI," said the man who had searched them. "This is Agent Sokolawski and Captain Ellis of the Calliope Police. Are you Chester Morton and Philip Cohen?"

Frank and Joe exchanged confused glances. It was one thing if the police and FBI were looking for Frank and Joe Hardy, but Chet and Phil?

"Well…" Frank started to say.

Agent Harris didn't wait for him to finish. He opened the wallet he had taken from Frank's back pocket. "It says here that you are."

"Hey, what is this?" Joe asked. He knew perfectly well that both he and Frank were carrying their real IDs and that there wasn't anything in Frank's wallet that even had Phil's name on it.

"Chester Morton and Philip Cohen," Agent Harris pronounced in a serious voice, "you're under arrest for credit card fraud and cyberextortion."


	10. A Dangerous Plan

J.M.J.

 _A/N: Thank you again for continuing to read! Thank you especially to everyone who left reviews on the last chapter: Candylou, max2013, ErinJordan, beachgirlsrule, Cherylann Rivers, and Torchwood Cardiff! I really love reading what you think of my stories._

 **Chapter X**

 **A Dangerous Plan**

"I literally have no idea what you're talking about." Joe pulled on the handcuffs that were holding him to the chair in the interrogation room. The female agent and a police officer - a different one than the one who had arrested him - were glaring at him from the other side of a table with their arms crossed. The other agent and police officer had taken Frank somewhere else and were probably grilling him right now.

"We've been on your trail for months," Agent Sokolawski informed him. Joe stared at her in complete confusion. "We confiscated every electronic device we found in your hotel room. We've sent them on to headquarters. Our best cyber forensics agent is working on them right now. Do you really want to claim you don't know what we're talking about?"

"Yes!" Joe insisted. "It's some kind of a mix-up. You couldn't have been on our trail for that long."

"Oh?" Agent Sokolawski raised an eyebrow in an intimidating manner. "We have been. We've just been giving you rope and hoping you'd hang yourselves. You did just that by coming to Calliope."

"We're here on vacation," Joe protested.

"An awfully abrupt vacation." Agent Sokolawski flipped open a folder. "It says here that you only made your reservations at Mount Calliope Lodge two days before your arrival." She closed the folder and put her hands on her hips. "Now, tell me, Mount Calliope Lodge gets booked up months in advance. How did you manage to book a room there only two days in advance?"

Joe blinked. He didn't know about any of this. "I...don't…"

"Cyber forensics reports that there was a cancellation, but that the cancellation and the new reservation came from the same IP address," Agent Sokolawski continued. "And you want me to believe that you aren't a computer hacker?"

Joe stared at her, goggle-eyed. Was she out of her mind? He had no idea how Phil had managed to make the reservation right when someone else canceled, but the insinuation that Phil had hacked into the lodge's system and canceled somebody else's reservation was ludicrous.

"Now for the important questions." Agent Sokolawski leaned on the table. "What do you know about the murder of Roger Arden six years ago?"

Now Joe was convinced that Agent Sokolawski was out of her mind. He glanced at the police officer for help, but it looked like none was coming from that quarter. He turned back the FBI agent. "I was eleven years old six years ago. I don't know anything about any murder."

"Don't be cute," Agent Sokolawski warned him. "The Arden case is one of the biggest missing person cases in this area. For six years, we get nowhere on it. Then we finally make a breakthrough on it. The very next day - _the very next day_ , you and your buddy make reservations that should have been impossible to make to come here, and you want to tell me that it's a coincidence?"

Joe's mouth opened and closed uselessly a few times. "Why would it be anything but a coincidence?" he finally managed.

Agent Sokolawski turned her back to him and took a few steps away. Then she turned to him again. "The Arden case has been under investigation for six years. You and your buddy have been a minor annoyance for three months. We have you cold. If you know anything about the Arden case, I might be able to swing a deal with you."

"I don't know anything about the Arden case," Joe insisted.

Agent Sokolawski sighed in frustration. "I'd think pretty hard about that if I were you. Once cyber forensics gets through with your electronics, you're not going to have a chance in court."

There was a knock on the door, and Agent Harris stuck his head in. He spoke to Agent Sokolawski and the police officer in low voices for a few seconds and then handed the phone to his partner. She, in turn, with a scowl on her face, thrusted it at Joe who took it with his free hand.

"Your lawyer's on the phone," she told him.

Even more utterly confused than before, Joe raised the phone to his ear and said, "Hello?"

"Hey, Joe, it's Nancy." Nancy's voice over the phone was a welcome relief. "Don't say my name or anything that would give it away that you're talking to anybody but your lawyer. Okay?"

"Okay," Joe said. "Uh, so, what's happening exactly?"

"Sorry about all this," Nancy told him. "The case just took a more serious turn this afternoon. Cole and Adrienne's daughter, Serena, was kidnapped. We had to find a way to speed up the investigation. Sokolawski, Harris, and Ellis are all on our side. Other than that, we can't trust any police officers. That's why we have to assume that someone's listening to you talk that we don't want to hear anything important."

"I get it," Joe replied. "What about us getting out of jail?"

"We're hoping that that will be your inroad to getting into the secret society," Nancy explained. "There's bound to be curiosity about you around the station, about what you're doing here and whether you know anything about Arden or the threats, and one of the society members might make contact. Until then, play along like all the charges are real. Hopefully the society will decide that a couple of cyber extortionists who can outwit the FBI are just what they need to step up their terror game."

"That makes sense, I guess," Joe admitted. "You couldn't have asked us first, though?"

"I would have, but Agent Sokolawski insisted that I didn't," Nancy told him. "She didn't want to risk any unnecessary contact, and besides, your surprise was more genuine this way. I'm afraid that from now on in this case, we're not supposed to have any contact. For one thing, you're not getting your phones back from the FBI for a little while. Harris will give you a disposable phone that you can use to contact him, and he and Sokolawski will be keeping a constant eye on you, even if you can't see them."

"Okay," Joe said. "And what are you going to do?"

"Bess, George, and I will pretend to leave," Nancy replied. "Our cover's been blown, probably from the very start. We'll come back, though, and shadow Sergeant Valence. We know for a fact that he's involved now. If you do need to contact us, you can send word through the FBI agents."

"All right. I'll do that," Joe said. "Is there anything else?"

"No," Nancy said. "Be careful.'

"Same to you," Joe replied and handed the phone back to Agent Sokolawski.

"Your lawyer told you?" Agent Sokolawski.

"Yeah," Joe said.

Agent Sokolawski's face twitched with annoyance. Then she bent down to unlock the handcuff. "Since you and your buddy wiped the drives on all your electronics, your lawyer is insisting we can hold you, for now. Don't be too sure of yourself, though. Cyber forensics will recover those files before too long."

Joe rubbed his wrist. "Don't be too sure of yourself, yourself. You're not going to find anything on those hard-drives."

He met Frank outside the interrogation room, but neither of them said anything until they were safely outside. Even then, they used caution while they talked.

"So, did our 'lawyer' talk to you, too?" Joe asked.

"Yeah, she did," Frank replied. "So, what are we going to do since we can't leave town?"

"I guess just get back to skiing," Joe said. Then he dropped his voice to a whisper. "Do you think this is legit? What if this secret society is holding Nancy and made her call?"

"If Nancy was being held, she would have let us know somehow," Frank whispered back.

"What about the phone Agent Harris was supposed to give us?" Joe asked.

"He slipped it to me when no one was looking," Frank replied.

There was nothing else to do but go back to their hotel room. The lock, of course, was broken, and the only way they could keep the door closed was by using the deadlock. The management was very unimpressed with the disturbance and the damage to the door, and Frank and Joe were afraid they might be evicted. However, the worst that happened was that they were informed that the cost of repairs would be added to their bill at the end of their stay.

NDHBNDHBND

It had been after two in the morning when Frank and Joe had returned to the lodge, but by three o'clock, they were both sound asleep. Frank felt as if he had only just closed his eyes when he was awakened by a hand being clamped over his mouth. He started awake with his first impulse being to fight back, but he found that someone much stronger than him was holding him down.

A flashlight was shining directly in his face, so he could see nothing of his attackers except the dim outline of two people standing over him.

"Don't make any noise," a voice rasped at him. It sounded disguised.

Frank stopped struggling and nodded. The hand was removed from his mouth, but someone was still pinning him down by the arms and the flashlight was still blinding him. He glanced over at Joe's bed and saw the outline of two people standing over him as well.

"Who are you?" Frank asked, instinctively whispering.

"We are the Order of Mount Calliope," the same voice rasped at him. "Who are you?"

It looked like Nancy's plan had certainly worked and the secret society had decided to make contact. Frank thought the best plan was to act scared, although, truth be told, he didn't have to act very much.

"I'm Phil Cohen," he said, his voice quavering slightly. "My buddy over there is Chet Morton. We're just here on vacation, that's all."

"Then why did the FBI arrest you?"

Frank swallowed hard. "I don't...They must have mistaken us for…"

The man holding his arms gave him a hard shake and then demanded in a similarly raspy voice to the one his companion was using, "Don't lie to us! What do you know about Roger Arden's murder?"

"Nothing!" Frank insisted. "Only what those FBI people us."

"Then why did you come here now?"

"We just did," Frank said lamely. He realized that no one had given them a cover story for that, and he was going to have to come up with one on the spot.

"Cyber extortion. That's what they said your crime was. Do you know something about the killing and intended to extort the one responsible?"

"No!" Frank said. It was a cover story, but not a very good one. Chances were that agreeing to it would only infuriate these men. "No, it wasn't that at all. See, you probably heard about the FBI being on our tail for several months. We knew they were getting close, so we decided to shake them off for a little while. We thought we could do that by letting our business go for a couple of weeks and taking a vacation. I guess they were closer on our tail than we thought. The only reason we're not in jail right now was because we thought to wipe the hard-drives on our devices."

"They'll retrieve the data," one of the men said. "It's only a matter of time for both of you."

"Maybe," Frank admitted. "We've got a pretty sharp lawyer, though. She'll get us out of it."

"We could get them off your trail entirely."

The flashlight was switched off, but Frank still couldn't see in the sudden darkness. The man who had been holding him down let go of Frank's arms. A few feet away, Frank could hear Joe sit up.

"What was the idea of almost suffocating me?" Joe demanded. "Why does everyone always assume Phil is the one to talk to about anything?"

The men ignored Joe's protest. Instead, one of them repeated, "We can keep the FBI from ever finding you. All you have to do is come and work for us."

Frank and Joe would have exchanged glances if they had been able to see each other in the dark. The plan had worked.


	11. Artemis Silver

J.M.J.

 _A/N: Thank you so much for continuing to read! In particular, thank you to Torchwood Cardiff, ErinJordan, max2013, beachgirlsrule, Cherylann Rivers, and Candylou for your reviews on the last chapter!_

 **Chapter XI**

 **Artemis Silver**

"I hope you know what you're doing," Cole Warner said as he pulled his car into a parking space at the Calliope airport. He still looked sick, and from the dark circles under his eyes, he clearly hadn't slept at all the night before.

Nancy reached over from the passenger seat and placed a hand on his shoulder. "We've got good people working on this. We'll find Serena and put a stop to whatever is going on in this town." She paused. "If there's anything else you can tell us - anything at all - don't hold it back. You won't be helping anyone if you do, and you will be putting Serena and all of us in danger."

Cole rested his forehead against the steering wheel. "No, there's nothing else. I told Adrienne that we were going to be all right; that even though the threats were still coming, they didn't mean anything. I told her I'd taken care of it, and now look at what's happened."

"You were right about one thing," Nancy told him. "It is going to be all right. You understand what you have to do?"

"Yeah." Cole nodded slowly and resignedly.

"Captain Ellis is going to be right there the whole time," Nancy assured him. "You don't have to worry about anything."

"If we can trust him," Cole said.

"We can," Nancy said. "I'm certain of it."

She, Bess, and George gathered their luggage from the trunk of Cole's car and went inside the small airport. They picked up their boarding passes and went through security as if they were really leaving on a flight. However, Agent Harris had arranged with the airline that as far as anyone at the Calliope airport knew, the girls had boarded the plane although in reality they weren't going to. He had also left his own personal car in the parking lot and given the keys to Nancy so that the girls would have transportation. Lastly, he had booked another room at the hotel he and Agent Sokolawski were staying at in case it took more than a day for the plan to work out.

Once they were through security, the girls went into a restroom and emerged with their appearances altered as much as they could manage in a short time. They had all changed into bulky sweaters and covered their hair with hats or scarves, as well as doing their make-up considerably different than they usually wore it. They also left the restroom one at a time and went in different directions in case they had a tail who was watching for the three girls together. They doubted that since they were through security, but a little extra caution wouldn't hurt.

They met at Agent Harris's car and climbed in. Nancy immediately left the airport and headed for downtown Calliope, where Jason had told them Sergeant Valence was scheduled to work his beat.

"What's the plan when we spot Valence?" George asked. "I mean, he's a cop. He'll catch on if we start following him, and he can check the license number of this car and find out it belongs to Harris. If that doesn't send up some red flags for him, nothing would."

"I think it would be best if we found a place to park the car and wait for him," Nancy said. "We'll keep our distance while he's on duty. He's not too likely to try anything shady now and besides that, he is on duty and we shouldn't get in the way. We'll have more luck once he gets off duty."

"We'll still have to try to keep him from noticing that we're following him," Bess pointed out.

"True," Nancy agreed. She was about to start outlining a plan for how to accomplish this when something caught her eye. She immediately started signaling and pulled over to the side of the street.

"What is it?" Bess asked, looking out the car windows and expecting to see Sergeant Valence bearing down on them or something equally as disastrous.

"I just spotted the perfect place to watch for Sergeant Valence," Nancy said. She pointed through the windshield at a business a short way up the street. "See?"

The buildings in this part of town were old and packed closely together. In the window of the red-brick building that Nancy had pointed out were painted the words: "Artemis Silver, Fortune Telling & Horoscope Readings".

"The fortune-teller?" George asked. "I don't get it, Nancy. Why would Valence go see a fortune-teller?"

"I don't know whether he'd go see just any fortune-teller," Nancy replied, "but this one is something special. Look at her name."

"Artemis Silver." George shrugged. "What about it?"

"Artemis is the Greek goddess of the moon," Nancy explained. "I can't help still feeling that there's some connection with all these names out of Greek mythology, especially since Artemis was also the goddess of the hunt, and as such, carried a bow and arrows."

"A bow and arrows?" Bess repeated. "Do you think that fortune-teller is the one who's been shooting arrows at the Warners' doors?"

"I don't know," Nancy admitted. "It's just a hunch that it's all connected. I know one way to start finding out, though. You two stay here."

She climbed out of the car and headed up and across the street to the door of Artemis Silver's shop. A heady scent of perfumes, oils, and herbs wafted out the moment the door was open, and Nancy was immediately struck with how warm it was in the shop. The shop was mostly dark and filled with too many strange objects to look at any of them properly.

A dark-haired woman dressed in a long skirt with bangles on her wrists and large hoop earrings seemed to materialize out of the background and appear at Nancy's side, making her jump.

"You have come for a reading?" the woman asked.

"You wouldn't have to be a fortune teller to guess that," Nancy replied.

The woman smiled. "No, I suppose not."

"Especially since that's not why I came in," Nancy said. "Are you Artemis Silver?"

"Yes," the woman replied. "Why have you come in if not for a reading?"

"I was wondering if you sold herbs here," Nancy said. "You see, I've been skiing and I've been having some trouble with getting stiff. I was wondering if you had some herbs that could help with that."

"Perhaps," Artemis said. "I'm not a doctor, though, and this is not a pharmacy. I have no medicine here."

"I was looking for a natural solution," Nancy replied.

Artemis smiled again. "I deal mostly with the supernatural, but as you perhaps know, the natural and the supernatural go hand in hand. I think I can find something for you. Wait here a moment."

She disappeared into a back room, leaving Nancy to look around the shop. Nancy couldn't begin to guess what most of the objects were supposed to be, but she did spot two in particular that caught her attention. One was a painting of the Muse, Calliope, and another was a small statue of the goddess Artemis with her bow and arrows.

Nancy was still examining them when Artemis Silver returned with a small pouch in her hand.

"Here is a mixture of herbs that should cure any stiffness," Artemis said. "They are very hard to come by and so, unfortunately, I cannot sell them to you cheaply. Even this small amount cost me thirty dollars. I will just barely cover my own costs if I ask your for forty."

Nancy doubted very much that there was anything in the pouch besides basil and thyme and other common herbs, but now was no time to quibble over being overcharged. She took two twenty-dollar bills from her purse and handed them to the woman. Then she pointed out the statue. "Your namesake?"

Artemis nodded. "That's right. I've always been fond of Greek mythology, having a name that comes straight from it."

"Then it's probably extra exciting for you to live in a town that's named after one of the characters," Nancy said innocently.

"Oh, yes. As you can see, I also have a painting of Calliope." Artemis pointed it out.

"It's a lovely painting," Nancy commented. "You know, I think Artemis is one of the coolest of the Greek goddesses, being the goddess of the hunt and all."

"Are you a hunter, then?" Artemis asked.

Nancy grinned. "Not exactly. But still, the bow and arrow looks very cool, you have to admit."

"I wouldn't deny it," Artemis agreed. "She's the reason I've practiced a bit with a bow off and on over the years."

"Only a bit?" Nancy asked. "If I lived in a place like this, I'd probably be practicing archery every chance I got. With all this wilderness, there ought to be plenty of places to practice."

"There are," Artemis told her. "In fact, there's even an indoor archery range where you can rent all the equipment you need. Maybe you would like to look into it while you're here."

"I should," Nancy agreed. "Thank you."

She took the pouch of herbs and went back to the car where Bess and George were waiting for her.

Bess breathed a deep sigh of relief as Nancy climbed into the car. "Thank goodness you're all right. We were sure that fortune teller was going to murder you or something."

Nancy laughed. "She didn't even try."

"Did you have any luck, though?" George asked.

"I think so," Nancy said. "Even if she's not involved in this whole thing, she might have given me a clue to figuring out who is."

NDHBNDHBND

It was damp and underground and they had driven a long way. Those were the only things that Frank and Joe could gather about their surroundings. After they had agreed to help the mysterious men who had shown up in their hotel room in return for keeping the FBI off "Phil and Chet's" trail, the boys had been hustled into a car and hoods had been put over their heads. When they had arrived, they had been led through a doorway of some sort. Although the hoods were still over their heads, Frank and Joe both judged they were in an underground tunnel from the sound of water dripping off the ceiling and the earthy scent.

They could hear the footsteps of several people accompanying them - Frank estimated about half a dozen but there might have been more - yet no one said a word. Then they stopped. The hoods were whipped from both boys' heads and they found themselves in a pitch-dark room. Then several flashlights snapped on at once, all directed right into the boys' faces.

"Hey! What is this?" Joe protested, blinking at the sudden, blinding light. "This is the second time tonight!"

Finally, a voice spoke from somewhere beyond the lights. It was the same sort of rasping, disguised voice that had been used by the men in the hotel room. "We are the Order of Mount Calliope. Who are you and what are you doing in Calliope?"

"We already told your friends," Joe went on. He was glad that Frank had managed to put together a coherent-sounding cover story. "We're here to try to get the FBI off our trail. It didn't work out so well."

"It didn't work out at all," the man told them. "My men reported that the two FBI agents attempted to follow you from your hotel. Fortunately, my men were able to lose them before they came here."

This was definitely not welcome news for the Hardys, but they didn't let it show.

"Good," Frank said after a momentary pause. "I figured they'd be following us. Now, what exactly is this deal you offered us? What kind of work do you want us to do for you?"

Before the stranger replied, there was a loud beeping sound. Frank and Joe could hear several of the men jump to their feet in the dark.

A voice rasped, "You two are spies!"


	12. Trouble

J.M.J.

 _A/N: Thank you for continuing to read! In particular, thank you to Torchwood Cardiff, beachgirlsrule, max2013, ErinJordan, and DusktoDawn21 for your reviews since I posted the last chapter!_

 **Chapter XII**

 **Trouble**

"I wish we wouldn't have had to split up," Bess complained, speaking quietly.

"Shh!" George warned her as they approached the door of the Calliope Indoor Archery Range. "You know why we had to split up. Someone had to keep an eye on Artemis's shop to see if Sergeant Valence happened to show up there. Anyway, splitting up makes us less conspicuous. Anyone watching out for three girls together might miss just one or two of us."

"I still would rather be with Nancy," Bess whispered.

George raised an eyebrow. "Wow. Thanks, cuz."

"I didn't mean anything against you, George," Bess said. "It's just that whenever we split up, it seems like somebody gets into trouble."

"You do have a point there," George conceded. "But come on. Let's check this place out and see if they know anything about any of our suspects here."

The girls looked around the archery range. They entered into a lobby where a bored-looking teenage boy was sitting behind the front desk, scrolling on his phone. There were a few people beyond a glass door who were shooting arrows in the range, but otherwise it appeared to be a quiet day.

George winked at Bess. "This looks like more of a job for you than me."

Bess rolled her eyes. "You know I hate this sort of thing, and that I do have other skills besides getting information out of guys."

"That's great," George replied. "Right now, though, that's the sort of skill we need."

Bess allowed herself a sigh. Then she put on a smile and approached the front desk. "Hi, there."

The boy didn't even look up from his phone. "Five dollars an hour, twelve dollars for three hours. Rentals are the same price."

"Um, I don't want to shoot right now," Bess said. "I just had some questions...About archery." She glanced at his name tag. "You look like you know about archery, Tristan."

The boy jerked a thumb over his shoulder toward the glass door that led to the range. He still didn't look up. "Ask one of the instructors."

Bess gave George a helpless look. George shrugged and then stepped forward.

"Hey, that's a new iPhone XS, isn't it?" she said brightly. She whistled. "That's some phone, isn't it?"

Tristan finally looked up from his screen. "You know about iPhones?"

"Sure." George shrugged. "Of course, I don't have anything as fancy as an XS. Is that the sixty-four gig one?"

"Yep," Tristan said proudly. "I saved up for an entire year to buy this baby. You should see the features on it."

"I'd love to look at them," George replied.

For the next several minute, the two of them talked about the pros and cons of different models of iPhones and the technical capabilities of each. Bess didn't get anything out of the conversation, and she found herself glancing around the lobby in boredom. She spotted some newspaper clippings pinned up on the bulletin board and stepped closer to look at them. One of them talked about an archery tournament that had been held at the range several years earlier. It was not particularly interesting until Bess got to almost the end.

 _"The tournament ended with an exhibition by the Calliope Archery Club's most skilled member, Artemis Silver. Silver, in imitation of the conclusion of_ The Odyssey _, fired an arrow through twelve axeheads. When asked how long she had been practicing to make this amazing shot, Silver merely smiled. 'For years,' she admitted. 'I've been interested in archery almost as long as I've been interested in Greek mythos, which is just about as long as I can remember. Those myths are so much more than just stories; they're a way of life, and I pattern myself after them in every way I can.'"_

Bess blinked and reread the paragraph. Then she turned and went back to where George and Tristan were now arguing whether iPhones or Androids were better. "Excuse me. Could I ask you a question?"

Tristan glanced at her in annoyance. "Yeah? What do you want?"

"I was wondering if you could tell me if a woman named Artemis Silver comes here very often," Bess said, keeping her voice low just in case someone chose that exact moment to enter the room.

Tristan rolled his eyes. "How should I know?" Then he turned back to George. "I get what you're saying, but you also have to think about how iPhones come in uniform quality. Androids are made by a whole bunch of different companies, so it's a total wildcard what you're getting."

"Not if you do your research," George insisted. "That's the problem with iPhones: monopoly. The companies that make Androids have to compete with each other, so they have to try to have the best features at the best cost. That's not even a consideration with iPhones."

"It's really kind of important," Bess tried again.

"You bet it is," Tristan said. "Your friend here is sounding like she actually prefers Androids."

"I don't care if she wants to talk on a flip phone," Bess replied. "Do you know a woman named Artemis Silver?"

"Why should I?" Tristan shot back indignantly.

"Does the name mean _anything_ to you?" Bess insisted.

"No." Then Tristan paused. "Well, I guess that is the name of the archery club."

"Artemis Silver?" George asked.

"No, just Artemis," Tristan explained. "The Artemis Archery Club. They changed the name a couple of years ago, I guess."

"After that tournament?" Bess pointed to the newspaper clipping.

Tristan shrugged. "I don't know. I don't even know what tournament you're talking about. All I know is that it's just another example of how everybody in this town is absolutely looney about Greek mythology. Especially here."

"What do you mean?" George asked.

"Everyone just is. Everything's named after Greek stuff. Our newspaper is the _Hermes_ because he was 'the messenger of the gods'." Tristan did air quotes and used a mockingly impressed voice as he said it. "Everywhere you go, there's paintings of Greek mythology stuff. This place is the worst I've ever seen. They don't have it all out in the lobby, but the back rooms...oh boy. It looks like a temple back there." He dropped his voice and leaned closer to the girls. "I'm not always so sure it's not."

"Huh?" both girls asked at once.

"These people kinda freak me out sometimes, you know?" Tristan went on. "I just about drew the line and quit after the last tournament. It wasn't so bad until their end ceremony thing. This woman comes out in - I'm not joking - a toga. Then she says this prayer to the goddess Artemis and even burns some incense before she shoots the ceremonial arrow or whatever through these axeblades. The whole thing was just about too much for me. You know, I wouldn't be too surprised if this whole thing turned into a repeat of the Maccabees. You know, when the ancient Greeks were making the Jews sacrifice to their gods and then there was a whole war between them over it. Every day I come to work, I half expect them to make me burn incense to Jupiter or something. If they start up having human sacrifices, I will quit, though. That would be way too far."

Bess and George glanced at each other.

"You're joking, aren't you?" George asked finally.

"Only partly," Tristan said. "These people are really weird."

"Well, I don't think you have to worry about human sacrifices," Bess told him. "I don't think the ancient Greeks did that. And they wouldn't care about you burning incense to Jupiter because he was a Roman god."

"I don't think these people care about what the ancient Greeks really did or thought," Tristan insisted. "I mean, come on. The Greeks didn't run around in togas, either. That was a Roman thing, too. All I'm saying is that these people are really weird and really freaky and the more I talk, the more I think I should quit this job."

"Do you have a list of the members of the Artemis Archery Club around here?" Bess asked.

"Why? You don't want to join that freak show, do you?" Tristan rejoined.

"No," Bess said, "but I'd still like to see it."

"There might be one somewhere on the computer." Tristan grabbed a mouse and started looking around on the computer that was at his desk. "Oh, here it is," he said finally.

"Could you print out a copy for us?" George requested.

Tristan hesitated, but then he said with determination, "I probably shouldn't, but you know what? I'd like to make some trouble for these psychos. I'll do it. If they murder me for it, it'll be up to you two to avenge me, though."

"Uh, if it's going to get you into that much trouble, maybe you better forget it," Bess said. "I wouldn't want to get you, er, fired."

"Nah, no worries there." Tristan grabbed the sheet of paper as it came out of the printer and handed it to George. "They can't fire me because I'm going to quit." He raised his voice and directed his words toward a door behind him. "You hear that, Earl? I quit!"

The door flew open with a bang and a man came through. "Tristan Segal, for the last time, if you keep on…" The man paused as he saw Bess and George staring at him. "Uh...er...My a...You're those…" He apparently collected himself. "What seems to be the matter?"

"Uh, nothing," Bess replied, backing away. "We were just talking to Tristan here. We'll have to come back another time."

She and George turned and fairly ran for the door. As they went through it, they ran smack into someone who was coming in. A moment later, they realized it was none other than Jason Ellis.

"What are you doing here?" the girls and Jason all demanded at the same moment.

Jason looked up at Earl and Tristan, but the two of them had begun a heated argument and were paying no attention to either the girls or Jason. He ushered them outside where they could talk in a little more privacy.

"What are you doing here?" Jason asked again.

"We asked you the same thing," George replied coldly. She crossed her arms. "You're supposed to be keeping an eye on Cole, and we find you going into this place that we have reason to suspect is involved in this case."

"I have reason to suspect the same thing," Jason said. "Namely because Cole went in here an hour ago. I think he's trying to arrange a deal to get Serena back on his own."

"Why aren't you watching him now?" Bess asked.

"We've got trouble." Jason lowered his voice to barely more than a rumble as he looked all around him. "Cole gave me the slip just after he left here. I don't know where he went. And Agent Sokolawski called me. She says that the secret society made contact with the Hardys, all right, but they threw her and Harris off the trail. They only just managed to pick it up again right before she called me. That was maybe fifteen minutes ago. They're not sure whether they're in time or not, and they want back-up. I told them I wanted to make one more try to pick up Cole's trail again and then I'd meet them. I suppose you didn't see any sign of him in there."

"No," George said. "If Frank and Joe are in trouble, we'd better go help them. I'll call Nancy and have her meet us."

She placed the call, but it went straight to voicemail. George let out a long, slow breath. Nancy wouldn't have turned her phone off unless something had happened to her.


	13. The Order of Mount Calliope

J.M.J.

 _A/N: Thank you so much for continuing to read this story! In particular, thank you to Torchwood Cardiff, max2013, Candylou, beachgirlsrule, DusktoDawn21, ErinJordan, and Cherylann Rivers for your reviews since I posted the last chapter! Things are really starting to happen now, and from this point on, just about every chapter ends with a cliff-hanger (or two). For that reason, from this point on in this story, I'll post a chapter every day instead of every two days. So, here you go!_

 **Chapter XIII**

 **The Order of Mount Calliope**

"Spies?" Joe repeated. He and Frank looked at one another blankly. How had the Order of Mount Calliope, as they called themselves, discovered that the Hardys were here as spies?

Flashlights were still turned in both boys' eyes so that neither could see anything of their captors. The men were also disguising their voices by making them rasp.

"Our scanner shows that at least one of you have a tracking device on you," one of the men said. "Who is tracking you?"

The news came as a complete surprise to both boys. They knew nothing about it. There was no point letting these men know that, though.

"Oh, that," Frank said casually, as if he knew all about it. "Of course we have a way for each of us to find the other in case we're separated and one of us gets into trouble. There's no one tracking us at the moment."

"You two must be terribly close," one of the men replied, sounding doubtful.

"We're business partners," Frank went on. "If something happens to one of us, it happens to both of us. The best way for each of us to watch our own back is to watch the other's, too. That's all there is to it."

There was a long pause from the men as they seemed to consider this. Then one of them stepped forward with a hood over his head and a device of some kind in his hand. He began waving this slowly in front of Joe and then Frank. When he held it close to Frank's left side, it began to beep. He dug a hand into the pocket of Frank's coat and pulled out the disposable phone that Agent Harris had given him.

"This is what's making the detector go off," the man said, holding out the phone to someone in the shadows.

The flashlights were moved slightly so that the Hardys could see the vague shape of a hooded man examining the phone.

"Why do you have a phone like this?" the man asked. "I would expect someone in your business to have more sophisticated electronics."

"It's disposable," Frank said quickly. "Untraceable. Comes in handy in our line of sometimes."

"And what is this one phone number saved on it?" the man went on. "I see there is no name listed for it."

Frank took a breath to stall for time. He was getting tired of making up stories on the fly. "That's personal. Whose number do you think it is? The FBI?"

There was a brief whispered conversation. Then the spokesman of the group said, "We will have to deliberate further. The two of you will wait."

Frank and Joe were escorted into another room. There was an ordinary ceiling light in this one and no flashlights shining in their faces, and so after a minute or two for their eyes to adjust, the boys were able to see that the room was nothing more than a small chamber of a cave. The light and the door through which they had entered were the only man-made touches that the room had. There wasn't even a place to sit down.

"What do you think?" Joe asked finally. "Those guys seem really convinced that we're spies."

Frank nodded. He didn't want to speak plainly in case there were hidden microphones in the room and their words would be listened to, and he figured Joe had made the same guess. "I sure hope they decide we're not. It would be great to get the FBI out of our hair, but not if it just means living in a cave with these people."

"At least the FBI doesn't try to blind you when they interrogate you," Joe observed.

There wasn't much else to say or do. The minutes ticked by slowly, and both boys began to wonder whether the Order of Mount Calliope intended to let them out of this room or not.

NDHBNDHBND

Nancy would have been kicking herself if her ankles hadn't been tied. She had done a first-class job of bungling this stake-out. Her first mistake had been going in to talk to Artemis Silver. Her second had been not leaving immediately after the interview.

While she had been sitting in Agent Harris's car, watching Artemis's shop, as well as waiting to see if Sergeant Valence would show up by any chance, another car had tried to parallel park in front of her and had clipped her front fender. When Nancy had gotten out to talk with the driver, two men had grabbed her and shoved her into the back seat. It was a classic move, and Nancy berated herself for not having seen through it.

The one advantage to the situation was that now Nancy had a clear sight of three of the people involved in the secret society: the driver and the two men who had grabbed her. The driver was a man of about thirty-five to forty years with short brown hair and a lean face. He was evidently not enjoying himself. Whatever his complexion normally was, he was pale and drawn now, and as he drove, he fidgeted with his hands, moving them around on the steering wheel and occasionally drumming his fingers on his knee.

The other two men seemed much more confident in themselves. They were brawny men in their twenties. One was sitting on either side of Nancy. The one to her right was rather handsome with curly sandy hair and deep blue eyes. Just now, though, his face was set in a hard expression. The other had a sallow complexion and had evidently not shaved for a day or two nor did he appear to make a regular practice of brushing his teeth. His dark hair was clipped close to head.

None of the three men talked the entire time. They had simply grabbed Nancy, shoved her in the car, and tied her wrists and ankles. Then they had driven straight toward Mount Calliope. They had bypassed the road that led to the ski resort and had turned onto a smaller road that wound in and out among the trees for a couple miles. At the end of it was a log building with a sign hanging over the door that read "Artemis Archery Club". It was built right up against the side of the mountain.

The two brawny men carried Nancy inside and through a door in the back of the front room that led into a large closet. The driver pressed a button that was mostly hidden by a shelf and a hidden panel in the wall slid open. The men carried Nancy into a passage that led underground. There were ceiling lights, but otherwise it was nothing more than a rough-hewn tunnel. It eventually led to a large chamber.

There a strange sight met Nancy's eyes. About thirty or forty chairs were arranged in a semi-circle in front of a dais on which sat a sort of throne. On either side of the throne were life-size statues of women whom Nancy guessed to be Artemis and Calliope, judging from the fact that one had a bow in her hand and a quiver of arrows over her shoulder and the other was holding a book and wearing a crown. A small table that could have been meant as an altar stood before each statue. There was no ceiling light in this room; it was illuminated solely by the flickering of dozens of candles arranged around the bases of the statues, on the altars, and along the sides of the room. The throne was empty, but most of the other chairs were occupied by people with long robes and dark hoods over their heads. Two unhooded men were standing on the dais, apparently having a debate of some kind. They stopped as Nancy was brought into the room by her captors.

"She came into _her_ shop," one of Nancy's captors said without preamble. It was the unshaven one, and he put a curious emphasis on the word "her". Evidently, Nancy thought, Artemis Silver was important to these people.

"What of the other two?" one of the men on the dais asked.

"I know nothing," Nancy's captor replied, and the other two echoed the statement.

"Did you search for them?" the man questioned.

"This one was alone," Nancy's captor told him. "We followed the orders that _she_ gave exactly."

The man on the dais nodded. "Did _she_ give any orders regarding what we are to do with her?"

" _She_ will deal with her herself when she gets the chance, same as the other one."

"Good." The man on the dais looked relieved. "Put her in a safe place. We are still conferring regarding our two newest initiates."

Nancy was carried through a door - she saw now that there were numerous doors along the walls of the room - and then unceremoniously dropped on the floor. The door was slammed shut and Nancy heard the snap of a lock. She was plunged into pitch darkness with her hands and feet still bound.

NDHBNDHBND

"How much farther is it?" George leaned forward from the back seat so that she could see out the windshield better.

Along with Jason Ellis, she and Bess had gone back to see what had happened to Nancy, only to find Agent Parker Harris's car abandoned. It was unlocked, the keys were in it, and Nancy's phone was on the ground next to it. It wasn't hard to guess what must have happened.

Jason and the girls next headed out of town toward Mount Calliope to meet with the FBI agents about their search for Frank and Joe. All three of them were tense. Nancy and Cole had both vanished, and the agents who were supposed to be tracking Frank and Joe had temporarily lost the trail. There was still no sign of Serena. The case was quickly becoming critical.

"We should be meeting them any minute," Jason told George. "Look - there's their car now."

He parked behind the agents' car, and he and the girls piled out. Agent Elena Sokolawski got out of the driver's seat of her car.

"Harris is making a search of the area to see if he finds anything," Agent Sokolawski explained briefly.

"What happened?" George demanded. "How did you lose the trail?"

"Six hooded men came into the boys' hotel room last night," Sokolawski told her. "They took them off in an SUV. We followed, but the driver made us. We dropped back, letting them think they'd shaken us. We had planted a tracking device on the boys, so we could still follow them from a distance. The signal keeps blinking in and out, though. We think they're in this area, but we can't be sure. The signal has been out for over an hour now."

"What could be causing that?" Bess asked.

"A lead-lined building would do it," Agent Sokolawski told her. "Out here, though, we suspect they might be being held in a cave. Harris is looking to see if he can see any signs of anything like that."

George crossed her arms. "So we're just going to tromp around in the snow, looking for caves that might not be here, while this case has now escalated to five missing people?"

"Do you have a way that's going to get us results any faster?" Agent Sokolawski asked.

George sighed. "No. Okay. Let's stop wasting time and start searching ourselves."

"We'll spread out," Agent Sokolawski proposed. She handed a radio to Jason. "There's a blocker on there. Nobody can listen in except Harris and me. We'll start a search grid, dividing the area on the north side of the road into three sections. We were able to narrow the location to that area before the signal went out, although of course the boys might have been moved by now. Harris is in the middle section. I'll take George and search the section to the left and, Ellis, you take Bess and search the section to the right. The signal was no more than two miles out, so don't bother going farther than that."


	14. The Search

J.M.J.

 _A/N: Thank you for continuing to read! In particular, thank you to Torchwood Cardiff, Cherylann Rivers, max2013, beachgirlsrule, and ErinJordan for your reviews on the last chapter!_

 **Chapter XIV**

 **The Search**

Bess panted as she stepped from one of Jason's footprints to the next. She was glad of the snowshoes that the officer had loaned her. It was hard enough walking in the deep snow with them; without them, it would have been impossible. They had been out in the woods for more than an hour now, working their way in a search pattern. They had kept in radio contact with George and the FBI agents, but so far none of them had found any sign of the Hardys nor had the signal from the tracking device come back.

"Could we stop for a rest?" Bess requested finally. She wasn't sure she could go on another step.

Jason glanced over his shoulder at her. Bess could practically see the "no" on the tip of his tongue, but then he relented. "All right. We can rest a few minutes." He leaned his back against a tree and shook his head. "If only we had more people. This is too big a radius for five people to search efficiently, and by this time, the boys might have been moved anyway."

"So, you think it's hopeless?" Bess asked, a slight catch in her voice.

"I don't know." Jason folded his arms and hung his head slightly. "I don't know what's going to happen. This whole thing is such a mess. I shouldn't have let you and your friends get involved."

"You didn't 'let' us get involved," Bess reminded. "You asked Nancy to help you."

"I know, I know, I know. I shouldn't have, though. If I wouldn't have, you'd all be safe at home right now. That little girl wouldn't have been kidnapped, and Cole Warner wouldn't have crossed these people and he and the rest of the firemen would be safe." Jason sighed. "I was just thinking about myself and my officers. It's been a long time since anyone's actually tried to hurt me, but there's always the chance. Then there's my officers. I know how many and which ones of them are trustworthy, but I know some are. I'm sure most are. I also know that all the trustworthy ones are in danger. It's still no excuse to get civilians involved in something like this."

"It's too late to change it now," Bess told him. "It sure would be handy if you did know which of your officers you can trust, though."

The radio on Jason's belt buzzed and he answered it. "Ellis speaking."

"Ellis, the signal came back on," Agent Harris's voice came over the radio. "It looks like the boys are in your area of the search grid. I've got coordinates for you. Head in that direction, but wait until the rest of us get there before you do anything." He read off a series of numbers which Jason entered into a GPS unit.

Jason acknowledged the information and then waved for Bess to follow him. It wasn't long before they neared the coordinates. Once they were close, they began moving more cautiously. However, they reached the exact spot that the coordinates indicated without seeing so much as a human footprint.

"What do we do now?" Bess whispered.

Jason looked around him. "There's nothing here. They must have found the tracking device and thrown it away here."

"They couldn't have," Bess argued. "There's no footprints or anything. Unless they threw it out of an airplane, there's no way they could have gotten it here."

"Then there's something wrong with the signal." Jason shrugged.

"Or we're standing right on top of a cave," Bess said. "Remember Agent Sokolawski said that the signal could have been going in and out because it was coming from underground."

"That's right," Jason agreed, "but it presents us with a new problem. If there is a cave underground here, the entrance could be miles away. How are we going to find it?"

He didn't wait for Bess to answer since he didn't think she would have an answer so quickly. He pressed the "talk" button on the radio and began giving a report to the agents. He was about halfway through when there was a deafening crack. Bess screamed and Jason dropped the radio to grasp his shoulder as he sank down on one knee.

Although the shot had surprised Bess, she didn't completely lose her wits. She grabbed Jason by the good arm and half-dragged him into some bushes. Then she looked around for any sign of the shooter. There was none.

Jason gave a quivering groan as he slowly peeled his hand away from his shoulder to examine his wound. Bess was at his side in an instant, even though the sight of the ugly wound made her stomach turn. Jason clapped his hand back over the wound and closed his eyes for a moment with his teeth gritted.

"Any sign of the sniper?" he asked finally.

"No," Bess told him. She glanced at the radio lying a couple of yards away. "And no way to call for help unless you want me to try going back out there."

"No," Jason said quickly. "Harris and Sokolawski know where we are, and they should be able to figure out we're in trouble. We just have to wait for them."

Bess nodded. "We'd better do something to stop that bleeding. There's no telling how long it will be before help gets here."

She searched all her pockets for anything that could be used to apply pressure to the wound, but she could find nothing. She looked up at Jason, who was sitting with his back against a tree, to ask him if he had anything that she could use, but the words were forgotten before they even reached her lips. Two men dressed entirely in white and with white ski masks over their heads were standing behind Jason with rifles in their hands. There would be no escaping now.

NDHBNDHBND

Nancy wasn't sure how long she had been tied up in this dark, damp, close space. Time was lost in the perpetual darkness. The only thing she knew for sure was that it had been a long time, and for that entire time, she had been trying to loosen her bonds.

Her wrists were rubbed raw and every slight movement she made causing the rope to rub against them burned. She could feel tears in her eyes from the smarting pain and the fear and frustration of the situation, but this was no time for crying. She shook her head to clear it and kept trying to free herself.

Finally, after an eternity, she felt the ropes loosen. She could move her hands only slightly, but it was enough. Doing her best to ignore the pain, she put all her strength into pulling one hand free. It took off most of the skin from the back of her hand, but she made it. With a sigh of relief, she sat up and began working on the knots holding her ankles. This, too, was difficult, but it was a matter of only fifteen minutes or so rather than the hours that it had taken to free her hands.

She stood up, relieved that her legs hadn't gotten cramped from being tied, and stretched out her hands to feel for the door. A few moments of systematic searching resulted in finding the doorknob, and she turned it, fully expecting it to be locked. To her surprise, it turned easily.

Nancy opened it a crack to peer out. The room beyond was completely dark. The candles along the walls and around the statues had either burned out or been extinguished, and though she listened closely, even holding her own breath, she couldn't hear anything that indicated someone in the room.

Noiselessly, she pushed the door open wide enough to slip through. Her next task was to get out of the cave entirely. If she had a light, she was confident she could find the door that she had been brought to earlier, and from there follow the tunnel up to the archery club. Getting out of the archery club and back to town would present its own set of problems, but she would deal with that when she got there.

She put one hand on the wall and started feeling her way around the room. She came to several wooden doors set into the roughly-hewn rock, but she knew none of them could be right; she hadn't gone far enough yet.

Finally, she judged she must be getting close. She didn't want to miss it, so the next door she came to, she tried to crack it open. It was locked. The next door was also locked, as was the third, but someone had left a key in the lock on this one. Nancy turned the key gently and slowly opened the door. A crack of light flooded out, so Nancy stopped the door when it had opened only a fraction of an inch, and pressed one eye against the opening to see through. She couldn't quite believe what she saw.

Frank and Joe Hardy were sitting on the floor of a tiny chamber of the cave.

"What are you guys doing here?" Nancy asked, speaking quietly as she opened the door wider.

Frank and Joe jumped to their feet.

"Nancy!" Joe burst out. "How did you get here?"

Nancy went inside the room and pulled the door closed after her so that they could avoid anyone coming into the larger chamber beyond seeing the light. The three quickly exchanged stories.

"So, what should we do now?" Nancy asked.

"If you know the way out," Joe said, "let's go! I'm starting to get the feeling these guys don't want us to join their country club after all."

"What about Serena?" Nancy pointed out. "I don't suppose either of you guys have seen any sign of her?"

Frank shook his head. "We can't leave until we find her. It looks like this place is huge. We could probably search for hours before we find her."

"And on top of that, we have to keep from getting recaptured ourselves," Nancy said. "Splitting up might help us search faster, but I think we'll be better off sticking together."

"I agree," Frank said.

"If it's going to take hours to search, let's get going," Joe suggested. "No sense wasting any more time."

The three of them edged their way out of the room and back into the pitch blackness of the large chamber. As Nancy had done before, they inched their way along the wall, trying every door that they came to. Every single one was locked.

Joe was in the lead, and then Frank, and then Nancy. When they estimated that they had gone about halfway around the room, Joe stopped short. The wall had abruptly vanished underneath his hand. They had evidently come to an empty doorway. Joe reported this in a whisper to the others.

"Let's see what's down there," Nancy said.

The doorway led to a tunnel. It was dark and silent except for the drip of water here and there. None of the three detectives made a sound as they went.

After several minutes of this, Joe came to a doorway with cracks of light coming from the edges of the door. He turned the knob very slowly and open the door just wide enough to peer inside. It led into another small room like the one he and Frank had been imprisoned in. The only person inside it was a little girl who was sitting against one of the walls, hugging a backpack against her. It wasn't hard to guess who it was.

"Hi, there," Joe said softly. "My name's Joe. These are…" He turned to introduce Frank and Nancy, but a pang of fear went through him as he realized that neither of them were still behind him.

"Leave me alone." The girl hid her face in her backpack. "I just want to go home."

"I'm a detective," Joe went on. "I'm here to take you home. Are you Serena?"

The girl looked up and nodded. "Can we go now?"

"Sure," Joe said. "But we still have to get out of this cave, and until we do that, you're going to have to be very, very quiet, okay?"

"Okay."

Serena climbed to her feet and put her backpack on. Then she took the hand that Joe held out to her. As they left the room, Joe glanced up and down the hallway as far as he could see in the light. There was no sign of Frank and Nancy. He had no way of knowing where they had gone or how they had gotten separated. This was not good.


	15. A Strange Claim

J.M.J.

 _A/N: Thank you so much for continuing to read! Thank you ErinJordan, beachgirlsrule, max2013, and Cherylann Rivers for your reviews on the last chapter!_

 **Chapter XV**

 **A Strange Claim**

"...at the coordinates now. No sign of…" Jason Ellis's voice over the radio was cut off by a loud sound and then went dead.

George was about to ask what had happened, but from the grim look on Agent Sokolawski's face, she guessed what the sound had been.

Agent Sokolawski paused for a moment and then held the radio up to her mouth. "Did you get that, Harris?"

"Affirmative," Agent Harris replied. "Approach the area with extreme caution. We'll rendezvous a quarter of a mile from the location. I'll give you the exact coordinates."

Agent Sokolawski entered the numbers into her GPS. The she and George went forward, moving even more quickly than they had before.

George was biting her lip. First the Hardys, then Nancy, and now Bess. This case was getting more nightmarish by the minute. She made a vow to herself that if she was reunited with any of her friends, she would not separate from them again until they were safely away from Calliope.

She and Agent Sokolawski met with Agent Harris at the spot he had indicated. Then, together, the three of them approached the spot where the signal from the Hardys' tracker had last been located. As they went, Agent Harris told them that the signal had been lost again.

"Please tell me you guys called in back-up," George said.

"Of course," Agent Harris told her. "They won't get here for at least another hour or so, and that's if they come in a helicopter, which I asked them not to because of the noise and attention that would attract. We'll see what the situation is. We'll handle it if we can. Otherwise, we'll sit on it and wait for back-up."

When they reached the coordinates, both agents had their guns out and ready for use, but there was no break in the stillness. They did, however, find several sets of footprints and other marks which were harder to distinguish.

Agent Sokolawski pointed out a patch of snow that had been stained red. "At least one of them was hit. Must not have been too bad, though. From the footprints, it looks like they all walked out."

"I'd say Ellis, Bess, and two captors," Agent Harris deduced.

George's face became paler as her fears were confirmed, but she clenched her fists resolutely. "At least we've got a trail to follow this time."

"Right," Agent Harris agreed. "What do you think, Elena?"

Agent Sokolawski thought it over for a moment. "With one, at least, of them wounded, we might not have time to wait for back-up. It's going to be dark before back-up gets here, anyway. I don't think we have any choice."

"All right." Agent Harris nodded. "Ms. Fayne, this is going to get dangerous. I would recommend that you stay behind, but that's likely to be equally dangerous. This isn't how I normally work, but do you know how to use a gun?"

"I've done a little target shooting," George replied. "I could handle one if I had to."

Agent Harris handed her a gun and some extra ammunition and showed her how to reload it. "This is just in case something happens to Sokolawski and me or we get separated. Don't use it unless you have to."

The three proceeded to follow the footprints mostly in silence. Finally, they came to a cliff. There was the opening of a cave approximately twenty feet from the base of the cliff and a steep, narrow trail that led up to it. A man in white clothing and a white ski mask was standing guard next to the entrance.

George and the agents sank behind the cover of some brush.

"It looks like we found them," Agent Sokolawski whispered.

NDHBNDHBND

"Are you sure you're all right?" Bess asked in concern.

She and Jason, escorted by the two masked men, had been led into a cave in the side of a cliff. Jason had leaned on Bess's shoulder the whole way, and now that they could finally stop, his face was white and drawn with pain.

"Yeah." Jason shifted his weight so that he was leaning against the wall instead. He rested his head against it, apparently oblivious to the rough, jagged surface. His shoulder was still bleeding freely.

Bess glanced at their two captors. They still had their masks over their faces, but Bess could imagine the stoic, heartless expressions they probably wore. How could they just stand there, not even caring that they had just forced a man who might very well be bleeding to death to walk nearly a mile and now weren't even letting him sit down? It made Bess's blood boil just to think about it.

"Couldn't you at least give me something to try to stop the bleeding?" she asked finally.

Neither moved.

"It's okay, Bess." Jason paused to take in another breath. "They're not going to help."

"Let's keep going," one of the masked men said.

They prodded Bess and Jason along a tunnel into a medium-sized room that was lit by torchlight. Six men stood in two lines, making a short aisle. At the end of the aisle stood a woman whom Bess recognized from a picture in the newspaper clipping at the archery range: Artemis Silver.

She was dressed in a white toga-like robe and wore necklaces and bracelets and even a silver tiara on her head. Bess supposed that she was probably supposed to look impressive, but at the moment, the only thought that passed through Bess's mind was to wonder how she wasn't freezing in a costume like that.

A small smile played over Artemis's lips as she saw the captives. "Good work. We will soon have all our annoyances taken care of."

Bess helped Jason to lean against the wall, and now that her arms were free, she crossed them and stood with her feet shoulder-width apart. George wasn't here to make some mocking comment to this woman, so the duty had to fall to Bess. Unfortunately, the only one she could think of was, "Isn't it a bit late for Halloween?"

The smile on Artemis's face turned into a smirk for an instant, but then she smoothed it away into a more dignified expression. "Perhaps you would not be so facetious if you knew who I was, mortal."

From behind her, Bess heard Jason mumbled, "What the heck?"

Bess didn't back down. "You're Artemis Silver, that fortune-teller. You also are an archer, and you duplicate Odysseus's famous shot from the _Odyssey_ at the archery tournament every year."

"Indeed, but I am more than that." Artemis stood straighter, and Bess thought all the men in the room except for Jason cowered just a bit. "I am the great goddess Artemis."

That revelation was met with silence. Bess's mouth fell open and her eyes widened. "O-kay," she said finally. "That's, uh, that's very interesting."

Artemis smiled again. "You don't believe me. But you will. I will prove my power to you in time."

Bess's mind was racing. Obviously, this woman's claim was absurd. The only question was whether she was insane or only her followers were. Bess remembered Nancy telling her about how cults usually worked. In many cases, there had been a single person who had convince their followers that they were divine or at least the messenger of divinity, sometimes believing it themselves and sometimes not. Often, when the leader of the cult was an intentional fraud, they were taking money and other possessions from their followers or were otherwise using them. When the leader was merely insane, the cult was often seeking to gain control of an area. It didn't matter much which sort of cult leader Artemis was at the moment. All that mattered to Bess right now was getting herself and Jason away from here in one piece, as well as Nancy, the Hardys, Serena, and Cole, if she could.

"Put them with the others," Artemis ordered her men. "I will deal with them all in my own time."

Being put with the others would be a good thing, Bess thought. "The others" undoubtedly meant at least some of her friends, and so that would save her the trouble of trying to find them. On the other hand, their chances of escaping would be better if Bess could glean every possible bit of information from this lunatic before she was taken away.

"Hold on." Bess took a step closer. "You can't just say something like that and not follow it up. Why don't you prove it now?"

"I don't listen to the demands of mortals," Artemis replied.

"In other words, you can't prove it." Bess swallowed hard. She wasn't good at pretending not to be scared in situations like this, but she was determined to do the best she could.

Any amusement that had been there left Artemis's features. She set her jaw. "I will not be lenient in punishing your insolence, mortal. Speak with reverence. I do not wish to be goaded into a display of my power by such as you."

"Then at least tell me about how all this works," Bess said. "All I see is a woman in a cave surrounded by guys in hoodies. Maybe if you told a little bit about what you're trying to do, I'd be a little more willing to believe in your goddess-ness, or whatever."

"And then you will somehow use this knowledge so that you and your friends might escape," Artemis replied.

Bess blinked. "How did…"

Artemis smiled again. "You see? I can peer into the minds and hearts of mortal men and women. I can hear your thoughts as clearly as you can hear my words."

Bess shivered. She still didn't believe that this woman had any claim to divinity, but it did look like she had read Bess's thoughts. What if there was something supernatural in all of this?

A low moan from Jason broke into Bess's thought. She turned just in time to see Jason sink to floor, sliding slowly against the wall. Beads of sweat stood out on his forehead, and he was breathing hard and shivering.

"Please." Bess turned to the woman once again. "Can't you do something for him?"

"Don't worry about it," Jason spoke up. His words were stronger than Bess expected from the way he looked. "I wouldn't ask any favors of the 'great goddess Artemis'. Even if I did stoop to that, she wouldn't help me. The Greek gods always did fear mortals who didn't bow before them."

Artemis narrowed her eyes. "I have no fear of mortals, particularly mortals who have come to the end of their short life."

"You should." The words came faint, and so Jason tried again. "You should be afraid. The gods who have been given their thrones by mortals ought to fear, because mortals can take their throne away."

"And how, mortal, do you intend to do that?" Artemis demanded.

Jason put a hand underneath his bulky coat. "The Greek gods were immortal, indestructible. You are not. That's why you should have told your guards to search their prisoners better."

More quickly than anyone would have expected of him in his condition, he pulled from his coat to reveal a small gun. Then everything happened at once. Jason fired the gun. Artemis screamed. Several of the guards fired their own guns. Bess threw herself on the floor. Jason groaned and sagged farther on the floor. Then, with a roar, rocks began to fall from the ceiling.


	16. Cave-In

J.M.J.

 _A/N: Thanks for continuing to read! Thank you especially to max2013, beachgirlsrule, ErinJordan, and Cherylann Rivers for your reviews on the last chapter. There will be four more chapters after this one, in case anyone is wondering._

 **Chapter XVI**

 **Cave-In**

Frank was purposely moving slowly as he inched along the wall behind Joe. They were in a cavern, and that meant that there was always a possibility of openings that didn't go from floor-to-ceiling like regular doors. It seemed to be a largely man-made cavern, true, but it had probably started out as a natural cavern and been enlarged. That meant a way out might be anywhere, and it was certainly worth taking the time to check for it. He and Joe had been in situations like this often enough and they thought enough alike that Frank figured Joe was probably thinking the same thing. Besides, talking posed a risk of discovery, and so unnecessary talking was to be avoided. He didn't realize just how far Joe was getting ahead of him.

Nancy was also feeling the walls up and down for any sign of another exit. Suddenly, she paused. She felt a little breath of fresh air move over her outstretched fingers as she reached up. "Frank. Joe," she whispered.

Frank stopped immediately. "What is it?"

"I may have found an opening," Nancy whispered back. "It's too high for me to reach. Can you?"

Stretching himself up as much as he could, Frank felt around for any opening in the rock wall. "Nothing."

"Give me a boost," Nancy requested.

She climbed up on Frank's shoulders and discovered a decent-sized cavity in the wall high above. Putting her hands out in front of her to feel for rocks, she climbed inside on her hands and knees. Once she was inside, though, she discovered that the hole was simply a cavity about three feet high, eight feet deep, and about four feet across. There must have been some smaller opening within it that led to the surface, but that didn't help them now.

"Nothing here," she reported.

Frank waited for Joe to reply. He was beginning to get suspicious of Joe's absolute silence. It was eerie, standing here in the pitch-darkness and having no way of telling whether his brother was standing next to him or not.

"Joe," he whispered finally when his brother made no response to Nancy's report. "Joe?"

Both he and Nancy remained absolutely silent, but there was no answer from Joe.

Frank sighed. "There wasn't even any place to turn off. How could have he gotten lost?"

"Maybe he just got ahead of us," Nancy suggested. She was still perched up in the cavity, and as she spoke, she glanced to the left as if she hoped to catch a sight of Joe in that direction. In the complete darkness, that was, of course, impossible, but then Nancy saw that it wasn't completely dark in that direction. There was a faint glow that was becoming less faint every moment. Someone was approaching with a flashlight. "Someone's coming," Nancy hissed.

"Is there room for me up there?" Frank asked. The cavity was their only option for a hiding place.

"Yes," Nancy told him. "Come on."

She reached down and Frank found her wrists in the darkness. Then with her help, he pulled himself up into the cavity next to her. A tense minute followed, and then the people with the flashlight passed underneath the cavity. It was two men, and they were in an earnest conversation.

"I think it is," one of them was saying.

"It's not up to you or me to think," the other replied. "Anyway, the other one's coming back. There'll be a showdown between them when that happens. It might wreck everything for them."

"Couldn't be too soon for me."

"Better keep feelings like that to yourself. If _she_ gets wind of it, you'll be in over your head."

"I'm gonna go back and check on the kid. I want to make sure she's all right."

"Okay. Whatever. Being a nice guy isn't going to do you any good."

The separated with one going forward and the other coming back along the passageway. The one who had declared that he was going back stopped almost directly under the cavity and stood there for several minutes, his head bowed in thought. He was still holding a flashlight, and in its dim glow, Frank and Nancy could just barely see one another's faces.

As the man continued to stand there and his companion receded farther and farther into the distance, an idea came to Frank. He nodded his head toward the man standing below, hoping Nancy would understand the gesture. For a moment, it looked as if she didn't, but then understanding smoothed away the confused wrinkles on her forehead. She nodded.

Frank got himself into position as well as he could in the cramped quarters. Then he jumped down onto the man below. His target managed to let out a startled cry before Frank clamped one of his hands over his mouth, stifling any further calls. The struggle only lasted a few moments longer before the stranger surrendered.

"Are you going to make a sound?" Frank whispered in his ear.

The man shook his head, and Frank tentatively loosened his hold over his captive's mouth. Nancy climbed down from the cavity and picked up the flashlight which the man had dropped.

"We've got some questions for you," Nancy said. "First off, who are you? What's going on here?"

The man shook his head. "It'll take a long time to explain that. As for who I am, though, my name's Mason Velazquez. I'm a fireman. I never wanted to get mixed up in this whole crazy thing. You've got to believe me."

Nancy was not about to make any comment on whether she believed him or not, nor was she going to waste time arguing with this man over what was going on. There would be time enough for explanations about that after they got out of here. "Next question. Where's Serena Warner?"

"She's down this hallway," Mason said. "She's locked up in a little room. They haven't hurt her."

"Show us," Frank demanded.

Mason seemed more than willing to cooperate, and Nancy wondered if they might have found a defector from the ranks of this secret society. She recognized Mason as the man who had driven the car that had brought her here, and she remembered how ill-at-ease he had been in doing so. Perhaps he was an unwilling member of the society entirely, or perhaps he had joined willingly enough, but the kidnapping were making him start to change his mind about his decision. Either way, he could be just what they needed to put a stop to whatever was going on.

They reached a door that was standing ajar. Mason looked nonplussed as he pulled it open the rest of the way and switched on an overhead light in the small room that it led to.

"She's gone," he said in bewilderment. "They've moved her."

Frank sighed. He wasn't so convinced that Mason was really willing to help. Who could say if Serena had ever even been in this room? "Why don't you try telling us the truth?" he began.

He was interrupted by a distant roar and a crash. He, Nancy, and Mason looked around them in surprise.

Mason's eyes widened in fear. "That sounded like a cave-in. We could be trapped down here!"

NDHBNDHBND

Serena held Joe's hand with a grip that had gained strength from her fear. For the first time since she had been kidnapped, she felt that she had someone who could protect her. Joe wished he had someone he could depend on and who could help him make the decisions he needed to make. He didn't know what had happened to Frank and Nancy. He didn't know how to get out of this maze of tunnels. Should he go back the way he had come? Continue forward? Wait to see if Frank and Nancy caught up with him?

He needed to prioritize, he told himself. Serena was the most vulnerable person in this whole situation. She needed to be taken to safety immediately. Frank and Nancy could take care of themselves in just about any given situation, and any situation where they couldn't take care of themselves, Joe wouldn't be able to provide much help, especially not with Serena along for the ride. The best help he could give them was getting out of here and finding those FBI agents or Captain Ellis and bringing help to Frank and Nancy.

Joe took a long breath. He hated the idea of leaving his brother and his friend to an unknown fate, and if Serena hadn't been there, he would have searched this entire labyrinth from top to bottom before he would have left them. But Serena was here, and what Joe had to do was clear. The only question left was: left or right? Back the way he had come or forward the way he had been going?

Before he could decide, a beam of a flashlight began coming down the corridor. Joe and Serena backed into the small room once again and closed the door before they could be spotted. They waited in tense silence for what seemed like an eternity. They heard footsteps approach and the muffled sound of voices on the other side of the door. They grew louder and louder until they were right outside. Then, to the immense relief of both Joe and Serena, the footsteps and voices both began to get quieter as they faded away in the distance.

That made up Joe's mind for him. He didn't know what was ahead of him in this corridor, but he knew for certain now that there were at least two members of the secret society behind. He would go forward.

Joe picked his way slowly through the dark. After a long time, he came to the end of the corridor. There was a wall there, but as far as Joe could tell from feeling it, there was no door in it.

"This doesn't make sense," he muttered to himself.

"Is something wrong?" Serena whispered, fear giving her voice a higher pitch than usual. "Can't we get out?"

"Of course, we'll get out," Joe told her. "It's just going to take a little longer."

"I'm scared," Serena said. "What if that lady finds us?"

"What lady?" Joe asked.

"The one with the funny clothes," Serena told him. "She was wearing a crown and sitting in a throne like she was a queen or something. She's evil. I could tell by the way she looked at me."

"Don't worry," Joe reassured her. "She won't find us. I won't let her hurt you. I promise."

Serena sniffled. "How do you know? She...she looks like the devil."

Joe felt his hair on the back of his neck prickle. Ordinarily, a seven-year-old telling him about an evil lady wouldn't bother him, but being lost underground in utter darkness made the story much more chilling. Even so, he had to push aside his own fears and try to keep Serena from crying.

Before he could say a word of comfort to her, though, there was a roar and they both felt the ground shake underneath their feet. Serena screamed and grabbed Joe in a tight hug. There was a deafening crash and then the air filled with dust which immediately caused both Joe and Serena to begin coughing. There had been a cave-in somewhere in the tunnel.

NDHBNDHBND

George crouched behind the bushes, intently watching the man who was standing guard outside the entrance to the cave. At the same time, Agents Harris and Sokolawski were having a whispered debate over whether they should jump the guard and try to get information from him or wait until their back-up arrived. As Agent Harris pointed out, if they took the guard prisoner now, they would have to carry through the rest of the rescue operation immediately, which they didn't have enough people for, but as Agent Sokolawski argued, they knew that either Bess or Jason was injured, and they may not have time to wait for back-up.

A loud rumble brough their debate to an abrupt end. The ground trembled slightly, and then a cloud of dust whooshed out of the mouth of the cave. The guard jumped back, coughing and choking in the sudden onslaught. Within a few seconds, two other men had run out of the cave.

"What happened?" the guard asked them in between coughs.

The two men were coughing and choking so that it was a long delay before one of them managed to say, "That idiot Ellis pulled a gun. Shots caused a cave-in. They're all buried."

"Even _her?_ " the guard asked in evident disbelief.

The second man waved his hand in impatience. "You don't see her anywhere around, do you? She's buried with the rest of them."

The guard shook his head. "But how? No, it's impossible. She couldn't have been. She must have escaped."

George had no idea who they were talking about, nor did she care. She felt as if a hand had reached into her chest and was squeezing her heart. Her friends were all either buried in the rubble of the cave-in or trapped, possibly with all their air cut off.

The two agents wasted no more time with further arguments. Both sprang to their feet, guns pointed toward the three men at the cave entrance.

"FBI! Drop your weapons!" Agent Harris shouted in a forceful voice.

The men started and dropped their weapons immediately, automatically putting their hands in the air.

"Face down on the ground! Now!" Agent Harris ordered.

While the men obeyed, Agent Sokolawski put her gun back in the holster and tuned her radio to the police band.

"Calliope Police Dispatch," a woman's voice answered her call immediately.

"This is FBI Agent Sokolawski. We have a cave-in. There are people trapped. Unknown number of casualties. Request immediate rescue personnel. Stand-by for coordinates."


	17. Trapped

J.M.J.

 _A/N: Thank you for continuing to read! Thank you in particular to everyone who left reviews on the last chapter: Cherylann Rivers, max2013, beachgirlsrule, and ErinJordan!_

 **Chapter XVII**

 **Trapped**

Bess coughed and wheezed in the dust. How she had not been crushed when the ceiling had fallen in, she would never know. She had grabbed Jason and pulled him into the nearest of several tunnel entrances in that chamber of the cave. By some miracle, that tunnel had remained intact, although Bess had a sinking feeling that they were probably still sealed up inside.

She turned her attention to Jason, who was lying next to her. The torches, of course, had been extinguished in the cave-in, and darkness had taken over in the cavern, but Bess remembered that Jason had a flashlight on his belt. She found it and turned it on, shining the light on the officer.

"Please don't be dead," she whispered as felt for a pulse. It was faint, but there was one. "Okay, Bess, think!" she told herself as she tried to remember what she knew about first aid.

A quick examination showed that in addition to his shoulder wound, Jason had evidently been hit at least one more time in the abdomen in the second round of shooting. Bess remembered hearing once that coughing was dangerous for a stomach wound, and so she needed to find a way to keep Jason from breathing in any more dust. She felt through all of her pockets and found a package of Kleenexes. She took several out and laid them over Jason's nose and mouth.

Then she turned her attention to his wounds. She knew that he had already lost a great deal of blood from the shoulder wound, and so it was imperative that she stop the bleeding from both wounds immediately. She took off her heavy coat. It was warm inside the cave, and so she wouldn't need it. She laid it across Jason so that it covered both wounds and then she tried to apply pressure to both of them at once. It was an awkward angle and hard to keep her balance without being able to use either of her hands to support herself.

Bess felt tears in her eyes. She had a sinking feeling that Jason was going to die and there was nothing she could do. Then she would be left alone down here, doomed to either suffocate or, if the air wasn't cut off, to face the even more terrible fate of thirsting to death. She shivered and wondered what had become of Nancy, Frank, Joe, Serena, and Cole. Most likely, they had all been down in this cavern somewhere. Were they trapped, too? Were they even still alive?

Jason stirred and opened his eyes. "What…" he tried to say weakly.

"Don't try to talk," Bess told him quickly. "You're hurt. I'm trying to stop the bleeding."

Jason blinked. "Where are we?"

Bess bit her lip. How could she begin to explain where they were and what had happened? Tears surged up into her eyes again. She attempted to blink them away while she continued to press down on Jason's wounds, but she couldn't help that several trickled down her nose and cheeks anyway.

NDHBNDHBND

It was nearly a minute before the dust reached Frank, Nancy, and Mason Velazquez. It seemed to come from up ahead.

Mason breathed a little more easily. "If the only cave-in was over there, then we should be fine. Let's get out of here."

"Hold it!" Frank told him. "That's the direction Joe went. We need to find him."

"The cave-in probably loosened more of the tunnel," Mason said. "There could be more. If your brother wasn't killed, he can get out himself."

"He could be injured or trapped," Frank argued. "I'm not going back without him. Come on."

He half-dragged an unwilling Mason along with him, as he and Nancy hurried down the tunnel. Eventually, they reached a section of the tunnel that had completely caved in. It looked as if there was a solid wall of debris blocking them from going any farther.

For a moment, Frank's face drained of color. Then he set his jaw, climbed halfway up the pile, and began dislodging rocks with his hands. Nancy went to help.

"It's no use," Mason told them. "If your brother was beyond this point, he couldn't have possibly survived."

"We don't know that," Frank replied.

"The cave-in might not go back very far," Nancy added.

Mason shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Oh, all right, but you'll never dig him out with your bare hands. We need help. I'd better go up to the Club and send out a message for the fire department, unless someone else has already."

"Isn't half the fire department here anyway?" Nancy asked.

Mason sighed. "Look, there's about three guys who'll stand here and do nothing, but the rest of us will do our duty, no matter what cockamamie beliefs some of them have. That's what _they_ never understood."

"You'd better go with him, Nance, and make sure he really makes the call," Frank said. "I'll stay here. Maybe there's something I'll be able to do."

"Right," she agreed. She jumped down next to Mason and the two began hurrying along. "What did you mean by, 'That's what they never understood'? Who are they?"

"Oh, boy," Mason groaned. "Like I said, it'll take a long time to explain that one. _They_ are these two women. They're insane. One is the woman who owns this mountain, Penelope Spiros. The other is some woman who showed up in town a few years ago and opened up a fortune-teller shop. She calls herself Artemis Silver."

"We've met," Nancy said. "What are they trying to do?"

"I don't know. Honest, I don't." Mason's voice had nearly hit a wail. "They think they're goddess; some kind of Greek goddesses reborn. Penelope calls herself Calliope and Artemis sticks with her own name, if it's her real name. I don't know how anyone can really believe it, but some of the guys mixed up in this cult do. I've never believed it for a minute. I don't know what they're trying to do, really."

"I don't know that I should believe you," Nancy replied. "From what I've heard, you're pretty deep in this whole affair."

"No!" Mason said sharply. "No. It's a lie. I never wanted to join this outfit. Sure, I joined the union about a year ago. I thought it would be a good thing. But it's not a real union. It's just a cover-up for this. By the time I figured it out, they gave me only two options: join or die. They weren't fooling, either. They showed me the video of what they did to Chief Arden when he wouldn't join up. After that, I didn't feel like I had a choice. They said they'd come after my sister and her family, too, if I didn't cooperate."

"Wait," Nancy said. "They have a recording of Chief Arden's murder."

Mason nodded. He was visibly shaking, and Nancy's intuition told her that he was telling the truth.

"Don't you realize with that video alone Spiros and Silver could get convicted of murder and this whole thing could be stopped for good?" she asked. "Why didn't you go to the police earlier?"

"I tried," Mason said. "I really did once. It turns out the officer I spoke to was one of them. They...they grabbed my sister and her kids. They were going to kill them if I didn't take an oath that I wouldn't try going to the authorities. I didn't what else to do. Then they forced me to...to help with some...some things." He put his hand over his eyes. "I didn't want to, but they forced me. I'll go to jail for life when all this gets out in the open."

"Is it better to have maniacs like these running rampant?" Nancy asked.

"No," Mason admitted.

"You must have some idea what these people are trying to accomplish," Nancy insisted. "Are they taking money from their followers or…"

"No," Mason interrupted. "They asked for some nominal fees in the union, but not enough to justify this." He waved his hand at the caverns around him. "The only thing that I can think of is that they're trying to get control of the town. That would explain why they're pushing so hard to get members of the police force and fire department mixed up in it."

"Why are they recruiting only men?" Nancy asked. "Other than the two 'goddesses' there don't seem to be any women around here."

"I don't know," Mason said. "They just don't, and I can't explain it. Maybe they have something against other women, or maybe they think that if they control all the men, it'll be easier to control the women. Who knows what they think? They're both completely insane."

By this time, they had reached the big, main chamber where the chairs and the statues were. Several portions of the ceiling in this room had also caved in. One lone man was wandering among the rubble, carrying a flashlight and loudly calling Serena's name. It was Cole.

When he saw Nancy and Mason, he rushed straight at them. "Mason! Where is Serena? Where's my daughter?"

"I don't know," Mason stammered, drawing to an abrupt halt and holding out his hands as if to shield himself.

"If anything has happened to her…" Cole threatened.

"I honestly don't know!" Mason insisted.

"I don't think he does, Cole," Nancy intervened.

Cole looked at her as if he had just seen her for the first time. "What are you doing here, Nancy?"

"I could ask you the same question," Nancy replied, "but there's no time. There have been several cave-ins throughout these caverns. We're pretty sure Joe is trapped, and who know how many others. We need to get help."

"From them?" Cole pointed at Mason. "None of this would have happened if it wasn't for all of them."

"No one's arguing that," Nancy said. "Come on. We'll look for Serena as soon as we get a call out for help."

"We won't get any cell reception in the caverns," Mason pointed out. "We've got to get up to the Archery Club for that."

"Archery Club?" Cole repeated. "You mean the one back in town?"

"No," Mason said. "There's several entrances to this place. I don't know which one they brought you in, but the Archery Club's the main one, and the one least likely to be sealed off. We've got to get up there right away."

"How many people do you think might be trapped down here, Mason?" Nancy asked as she and Cole began to follow him.

"Not too many," Mason replied. "There was a special meeting most of last night to talk about those two boys. It was wrapping up when we brought you here, Nancy. Most everyone has gone home or to work or whatever. There were just a few guards left, and Artemis was hanging around. Penelope and her husband are supposed to come later, but they'll probably turn around once they hear what happened."

The group of three had turned up one of the tunnels. There was still dust hanging in the air, and Nancy began to fear that a cave-in had blocked off this entrance. However, before they had gotten so far enough, they heard a voice shout from behind them, "Stop!"

They all froze and turned around slowly. A woman was standing behind them, pointing a gun at them. She had clearly been close to one of the cave-ins when it had happened. Her face was smudged with dirt and there was an ugly bruise on her forehead. Her hair was mussed, and her dress, which was like the ones worn in ancient Greece, was torn and dirty. Her arm was bleeding from an open wound. Yet, even in that bedraggled state, Nancy could not fail to recognize her as Artemis Silver.

"Don't any of you move another step," she ordered.


	18. Predicament

J.M.J.

 _A/N: Thank you for continuing to read! In particular, thank you to ErinJordan, beachgirlsrule, Cherylann Rivers, and max2013 for your reviews on the last chapter!_

 **Chapter XVIII**

 **Predicament**

Joe coughed and sputtered as the dust began to settle around him. Serena was clinging to him, crying freely.

"Are we going to die?" she whimpered.

"No way," Joe replied, trying to sound as cheerful and confident as he could.

"But it sounded like the whole tunnel fell in," Serena protested.

"Nah, not the whole tunnel," Joe told her. "We're at a dead end here, so it's no use going on this way. If we go back, chances are only a little, tiny bit of the tunnel will have caved in and we'll be able to get past it no problem."

"Are you sure?" Serena asked, finally loosening her grip on him a little.

"It's only in TV that people always get trapped by cave-ins," Joe went on. He didn't want to answer her question directly because he really wasn't sure at all. He stood up, gripping Serena's hand in his. "What say we get out of here?"

He started forward with his free hand on the wall so that he could definitely keep going in the right direction. Serena was still crying a little, but moving seemed to be good for her and she began to calm down. Numerous times, either she or Joe stumbled over rocks that had fallen from the ceiling. Then they came to what appeared to be a solid wall of fallen debris. In the complete darkness, Joe couldn't be sure, but he felt hope abandoning him.

Serena did as well. "We're trapped!" she wailed. "How can we get out now? I'm scared, Joe."

Joe squeezed her hand. "I'll let you in on a secret, Serena. I'm scared, too. But that's okay. This is a scary situation. Anyone would be scared. We just have to keep trying. We might be able to climb over this or go around it, and if we can't do that, we'll think of something else."

"Okay," Serena said, but her voice was doubtful.

"You stay right here," Joe told her. "I'll see if I can get around or over this."

He let go of Serena's hand, but as he examined the pile of fallen rock and dirt, he kept up a steady stream of chatter so that Serena would know he was still there. He examined the blockade as thoroughly as he could in the dark, but as far as he could tell, it had closed up the tunnel completely.

"Well, it looks like we won't be able to go over or around," he said as he came back to Serena's side.

"Then we are trapped," Serena said. "And we're going to die in here."

"Hey," Joe told her. "We are _not_ going to die. I've been in worse situations than this. There's always a way out."

"You just don't want me to know that we're going to die," Serena replied bitterly.

"Serena, I promise we're going to get out of here," Joe said. "Cross my heart. In fact, if we can't find our own way out, my brother and a friend of mine know exactly where we are. They'll get help, and they'll dig us out. There's plenty of air in here, so we'll be just fine. Even if it takes a long time." Frank and Nancy hadn't been far from Joe's mind ever since he had heard the cave-in. He knew that they had been somewhere behind him in the tunnel, but how far back was anyone's guess. He swallowed hard, willing himself to believe that they hadn't been buried beneath the cave-in.

That seemed to finally comfort Serena a bit. "My dad's a fireman. As long as he knows where we are, he can dig us out."

"That's right," Joe encouraged her. "And you can bet your dad's not going to waste a single second digging us out. Still, it wouldn't hurt if we could find another way out of here."

"How can we when we can't see anything?" Serena asked.

"I'm not sure." Joe paused to think. Suddenly, something that had been bothering him struck him. Two men had come down the hall from this direction. Where had they come from? They certainly hadn't walked through the wall at the dead end. There had to be something down here. Even if it wasn't a way out, it might still be helpful. Joe took Serena's hand. "Come on. Let's follow the other wall and see if we can find any doors."

They began working their way along the other side of the tunnel. Finally, when Joe estimated that they were nearly to the dead end, the rock beneath his hand gave way to smooth wood. A door.

It only took Joe a moment to find the knob and open it. There was no light on inside, and even though Joe found a switch just within the door, no light came on. The cave-in must have damaged the wires so that there was no electricity, Joe decided.

"Start feeling around with your hands," Joe directed Serena. "There might be something here."

In a few moments, Joe had decided that it was a small room but that there were a lot of shelves, boxes, and other assorted items in it. That spelled a storage closet to him. With any luck, it might even be a pantry.

"Hey, I found something," Serena said. A moment later, a flashlight snapped on. It was only a dim light, but after so long in pitch-darkness, it was one of the most welcome sights Joe had ever seen.

"Are there any more of those?" Joe asked.

"Yeah, a whole box full." Serena pointed the flashlight at the box, which, sure enough, was full of flashlights.

"Great!" Joe picked one up himself and shone it around the small room. To his great relief, he saw that the room was a pantry and was stocked with bottled water, various types of boxed food, and even blankets. "We're going to be just fine now, Serena. Let's take this some of this stuff up to the cave-in so we'll be right there when your dad and my brother dig through."

It took several trips, but the light and the supplies cheered both Joe and Serena so much that they barely noticed. They took everything that they thought might be useful and spread it out in front of the cave-in. Joe was glad to find several packages of extra batteries. With all of those, they should be able to keep the flashlights going as long as they needed to. He also found a deck of playing cards, and so after they had spread out a blanket on the ground and had a snack, Joe and Serena occupied the time by playing a few rounds of Go Fish.

Eventually, Serena fell asleep, and Joe began examining the fallen debris again. Again, he forced the images of Frank and Nancy being caught in the middle of the cave-in from his mind. They must have escaped. They were probably getting help right now. Or maybe help had already arrived. Maybe there were already men digging furiously at the other side of this pile of rock and dirt to free the prisoners. Joe strained his ears to listen for any sign of this, but he heard nothing. If there was anyone digging, the cave-in must have gone a long way back.

NDHBNDHBND

George stared at the wall of debris in front of her. It wasn't completely solid. There was a little room at the top left where she thought she could wriggle through. She had offered to do this to the two FBI agents, but they had strictly forbade it. They insisted that any rescue operations had to wait until the rescue team from town arrived. Last time George heard, that would take about forty-five minutes, and then who knew how long it would take for them to dig through this mess?

George took a step back so that she could look out the entrance of the cave at the agents. Agent Harris was still busy questioning the three handcuffed prisoners, while Agent Sokolawski was preoccupied with coordinating with the rescue team. Neither were paying any attention to her.

She closed her eyes and could picture Bess and the others trapped in the dark caverns, possibly injured. She knew for a fact that either Bess or Jason had been shot. She hoped it didn't make her a terrible person that she hoped it had been Jason rather than Bess. Either way, they needed help, and they needed it now. They couldn't wait forty-five minutes plus the time it would take to dig them out, and if George could get through that space above the cave-in, maybe they wouldn't have to. She set her jaw. Agents or no agents, she knew what she needed to do.

She started climbing up the pile of rocks. They were loose, and several rolled down over her feet, but George was a nimble climber and she made it to the top quickly. She had borrowed a flashlight from Agent Sokolawski, and she shone this into the opening. The murky darkness seemed to swallow up the beam of light before it had gotten very far at all, but George had spent enough time exploring caves to realize that this simply meant that the opening went back farther than the flashlight beam could reach. In that case, the hole just might go far enough to get George past the cave-in.

It was cramped quarters to crawl through. George lost count of how many times she bumped her head or scraped her palms or knees. She was sure she had ripped several holes in her jeans and her shirt would no doubt be ruined by the time she got through. Fortunately, she had taken off her heavy coat before she had tried it. Otherwise, she would have never fit.

There was no turning back now, though. For one thing, she couldn't turn around in here even if she had wanted to. More importantly, she wasn't about to give up trying when her friends needed her.

Finally, she squeezed her way through. She came out in what had once been a decent-sized chamber, but it was now mostly filled in by the cave-in. George shuddered as she looked around here. If any of her friends had been in here when the cave-in had happened, there couldn't be much hope for them.

"Bess! Nancy!" she called in desperation. "Frank! Joe!"

She paused and for a moment, she thought she heard something from behind one of the piles of rock.

"Bess! Nancy!" she called again, a little flicker of hope returning to her.

She strained her ears for any reply. Then a faint voice called back, "George?"

George rushed to the wall of debris, examining it for any sign of a weak spot where she could perhaps dig through. "Bess! Is that you? Are you all right?"

"I'm okay," Bess called, her voice a bit louder now but still muffled by the blockage. "Jason's been shot. You've got to get us out right now, George!"

"Just hold on," George told her.

The wall couldn't be very thick, George thought. If had been, she wouldn't have been able to hear Bess at all. If it was only a few inches, she could probably dig through with her hands. At any rate, she would have to try. It wasn't as if there were any picks or shovels handy.

Her few knuckles that hadn't been scraped and bruised in getting into the cavern were soon raw and bloody as she worked quickly to move the rocks out of the way. Before many minutes, though, she could see empty space when she shone her flashlight through the hole.

"I can see your light!" Bess called, her voice full of relief.

About five minutes later, George managed to crawl through the whole. She found Bess kneeling next to Jason's still, prone form, desperately trying to apply pressure to two separate wounds. George checked for a pulse and found one, but only barely.

"Is there any help out there?" Bess asked.

"Not yet," George admitted. "I'll go back and tell Agents Sokolawski and Harris what's going on. Maybe they can speed things up a little."

"Hurry," Bess pleaded. "I don't know that he can hold on much longer."


	19. A Goddess Dethroned

J.M.J.

 _A/N: Thank you for continuing to read! In particular, thank you to beachgirlsrule, max2013, Cherylann Rivers, and ErinJordan for your reviews on the last chapter! We're almost to the end; there is one chapter after this one._

 **Chapter XIX**

 **A Goddess Dethroned**

Nancy held her hands in the air, not daring to make a move. If anything at all that Mason Velazquez had said about Artemis was true, the woman was deluded and quite possibly dangerous. Nancy would have to tread carefully. Not only could Artemis kill Nancy, Mason, and Cole right now, the gunshots could cause more cave-ins, which was certainly not something they needed right now.

"This is your fault." Artemis pointed the gun at Cole. "You gave your word that you wouldn't call in the police, and then you brought in her." She shifted the gun so that it was aimed at Nancy.

"I didn't have a choice," Cole protested. "The other men insisted. I had to get some help. I didn't think Nancy would solve the case. I...I purposely tried to give her false leads so she would never get to the bottom of it. I tried to steer her towards suspecting the other firemen. I figured she couldn't get anything out of them. I even told her I was still getting threats, but it didn't trip her up."

"But you were still getting threats," Nancy said. "What about the arrows?"

"The first arrow was a warning for him to get rid of you, and quickly," Artemis spoke up. "The second was to show him what the consequences of failing that were."

"You told me my family wouldn't be harmed if I cooperated," Cole said. "Then you turned around and kidnapped my daughter."

"Only because you weren't cooperating," Artemis argued. "Valence told me that not only was she still here, she had made contact with Jason Ellis. She even found Chief Arden's skull."

Cole paled, but he spoke resolutely. "What did you do with Serena? That's all that matters to me now."

"She's locked up somewhere, if she wasn't buried in the cave-in." A shadow of Artemis's old, sarcastic smile returned to her. "It doesn't make any difference for you, though. None of you three are getting out of this cave alive."

"But...but what did I do?" Mason quavered.

"You forget that I can read the hearts of mortals," Artemis said. "I know that you don't believe in me and that you never have. I also know that you will betray me if I let you escape with your life." She pulled the hammer of the gun back.

"Hold on!" Nancy spoke up sharply. "If you fire that gun, it could cause more cave-ins. You could be buried yourself."

To her surprise, the woman fairly shrieked with laughter.

"Foolish mortal!" she spat. "I cannot be killed. I have already survived the first cave-in, though I was in the very chamber where the effects were worst. I was the only one. Neither my own men nor your friend Bess nor Ellis survived, but I did."

"Bess?" Nancy repeated, her bravado faltering. If Bess and Jason were in the room where the cave-in started...But could Artemis be trusted? She was evidently unable to separate fact from fiction in other areas. Perhaps she didn't know what she was saying.

"Ah, yes." Artemis smiled. Clearly, her words were having the intended effect. "Your friend was there, and Jason Ellis. He's the one who caused the cave-in by attempting to strike a goddess. Allowing him to be buried beneath the earth was a lighter punishment than I have given to many who have crossed me."

Mason shook his head. He was trembling all over, but in the extremity of his fear and hopelessness over the situation, he had stopped caring to tread carefully in his words. "You're insane. Absolutely insane. That's what I've always thought, but you already guessed that apparently."

"Guessed?" Artemis's voice was shrill. "I know. I know that you have been working in secret to destroy me, but you can't destroy a goddess. Once I am rid of the three of you, I can rebuild this place, and I will make sure there are no more traitors in our midst."

"Look at yourself," Mason said. "Even the biggest idiots you had in your group could see now that you're no goddess."

Artemis looked herself over for a moment. She glanced at the blood and the dirt and the tears in her clothes. Then she raised her gun again. "No one else will see me like this, and you three won't be here to tell."

Nancy saw the woman's finger quiver over the trigger. "Wait!" She stepped forward, putting up one hand. "You're going to kill us, all right, but there's no need to hurry. Mason said that there weren't very many other people around. There probably isn't anyone to go for help. We're all alone. Why kill us quickly?"

Artemis smiled. "Of course. Why should I? Not one of you deserve such a privilege."

"Right." Nancy breathed a little easier. She had just bought them some more time. If she could only find a way to use it to advantage. "Why don't you tell us about yourself and you're doing here? What about Calliope?"

Artemis's face darkened. "Calliope is a fool. Before I came, her plans amounted to nothing. She was content with money. Money! What is money to a goddess?"

"Nothing, I suppose," Nancy said. "So, she's the one who started the Order of Mount Calliope, and then you came along later?"

"That's right," Artemis said. "Though she is a fool, Calliope is powerful. She has other orders at the other mountains she has claimed. She allowed me to lead this one, and I have built it into something great."

"I see. How long ago was that?"

"It has been several years since I joined her." Artemis narrowed her eyes. "But it is only within the last two years that she has allowed me to do as I wish."

"That must have been difficult for you, having to take orders from someone else," Nancy said. "Especially when your ideas must have been much better."

"There is no comparison," Artemis declared. "Calliope was indiscriminate in who she would allow into the Order. Both men and women, people who were of no use to us. It was I who pushed to bring the police and fire department into the Order. It was I who discovered the most effective methods for bringing them in. I thought of the threats. I showed the video of the ceremonial killing of Roger Arden to the initiates. I expelled those who were useless from the inner circles."

"How did you decide who was useless?" Nancy asked.

"As I said, I can read the hearts and minds of mortals. I can tell who are traitors, who are loyal, and who can best serve me."

Nancy realized it was no use trying to find any logic to who Artemis brought into her "inner circles". She was beyond reason, so there was no point in reasoning with her.

"What exactly is the purpose of the Order?" Nancy asked.

"It is the beginning," Artemis said. "The gods and goddesses of old will rise again. The world will be ours once more. We only have to work in darkness a little longer until we can defeat modern man."

Cole shook his head slowly. "Nancy," he whispered, "she's completely out of her head. What are we going to do?"

Nancy had been weighing her options the entire time she had kept Artemis talking. She still didn't know how to escape this situation, but she was piecing together how the entire scheme had gone. Penelope Spiros had started this cult and possibly others as a fraud to take her followers for money. She had taken Artemis on to oversee this particular society, perhaps not realizing how insane Artemis really was. The society had probably become more deadly after Artemis joined. Probably Chief Arden's murder had happened shortly after Artemis had arrived on the scene. Even so, Penelope had apparently held some kind of rein on Artemis until recently. Now it appeared that Artemis was trying to seize control of the entire society.

"Now, come with me," Artemis directed, motioning with her gun for the others to go back the way they came.

"Where are you taking us?" Mason asked with an uncertain glance at Nancy.

"The main throne room with the altars of Artemis and Calliope is a more appropriate place to eliminate my enemies," Artemis said.

Nancy looked at Mason and Cole. If it had been Frank and Joe instead, she would have had little doubt of being able to get them to understand what she wanted to do without having to say it aloud. As it was, all she could do was wink and hope that they realized that she planned to do something. Mason merely looked confused as she winked at him and started moving forward as Artemis demanded, but Nancy thought she saw a flicker of understanding on Cole's face.

The greatest difficulty in Nancy's plan was that Artemis turned slowly with her, keeping her eyes and her gun on Nancy as the girl went past her. Nancy had hoped that she would watch the men instead, but somehow Artemis seemed to sense that Nancy was the most likely to make trouble of the three.

Cole watched as Artemis shifted her entire focus onto Nancy. His heart was hammering at what seemed twice its normal speed and he felt almost sick to his stomach. The one thought that drove him was that his daughter was somewhere in this hole, and he and his two companions were perhaps the only help available to her. They had to stay alive.

With this thought in mind, he steeled himself. As soon as Artemis had turned her back on him completely, he rushed at her and grabbed her arms. She shrieked and kicked, but she did drop the gun before it could go off. Nancy darted forward to grab it, but at the same instant, Artemis wriggled free of Cole's grasp and dove for the gun herself. Both women's hands closed on the weapon at the same instant.


	20. Rescue

J.M.J.

 _A/N: Thank you for continuing to read! In particular, thank you to beachgirlsrule, max2013, Cherylann Rivers, and ErinJordan for your reviews on chapter 19! So, here it is: the final chapter. Enjoy!_

 **Chapter XX**

 **Rescue**

Nancy and Artemis hit the ground at the same instant as they both dove for the gun that the latter had dropped. Artemis tried to tear it from Nancy's grip, but the girl didn't let it go. Artemis then tried to choke Nancy with her free hand. Desperately, Nancy rolled over, trying to shake the woman off, and all the time being careful to keep the barrel of the gun pointed away from her.

For a moment, Cole and Mason stood dumbfounded as they watched the scene. Then they both stepped in. Between the two of them, it was the work of a moment to overpower Artemis and pull her away from Nancy. Nancy stood up panting, leaving the gun to lie where it had fallen.

"Are you all right?" Mason asked as he and Cole struggled to hold onto Artemis, who was writhing and struggling to escape.

"Yeah. I think so." Nancy brushed a hand against her lips and flinched as she touched a cut. "That wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but I guess it worked."

"What did you have in mind?" Cole asked.

"She was going to take us past the light switch at the bottom of this tunnel," Nancy explained. "If you two could have gotten her attention as we went past, I was going to turn the lights out and in the confusion, we could have gotten away."  
"Well, however it happened, we've got her now," Mason said. "Let's get up to the clubhouse and call for help. We've still got the people trapped in that cave-in to deal with."

With a protesting Artemis in tow, they hurried along the tunnel to the entrance where Nancy had been brought in what seemed like so long ago now. The place was deserted. They tied Artemis securely to a chair while Mason handed his cell phone to Nancy so that she could call Agent Harris.

"Ms. Drew!" Agent Harris exclaimed when Nancy identified herself. "We were afraid you had been trapped in the cave-in."

"Then you know about it?" Nancy asked in some confusion.

"Yes." Agent Harris went on to explain what had happened to them, including George finding Bess and Jason in the cave-in. "We're digging them out now."

"Okay," Nancy said, relieved that Bess, at least, was all right. "We need a rescue team at our location, too. Joe Hardy was trapped in one of the cave-ins, and we don't know where Serena Warner is. I don't know how many other victims there might be. We also captured one of the ringleaders of this operation and have a witness whose testimony will make the case, I think."

"Good work on that," Agent Harris congratulated her. "We'll send people to you right away."

As Nancy hung up the phone, she turned to Mason. "If you cooperate with us, I'm sure things will go much easier for you."

Mason shrugged. "I'll do whatever you say. We've got _her;_ there's nothing more to be afraid of."

"Good," Nancy said. "I need you to stay here with her and make sure she doesn't escape. Cole and I will go tell Frank that help is on the way and start looking for Serena."

NDHBNDHBND

Joe was sitting partway up the pile of debris from the cave-in. With the supplies he and Serena had found, they would be fine until help could find them, but only so long as help was on the way. No one would know that they were even down there if Frank and Nancy hadn't...He shook his head. There was no use thinking things like that. He had to just keep hoping and praying that they had gotten out and would bring help soon.

Suddenly, he put his head up. Was it his imagination, or could he hear rocks and dirt being moved on the other side of the blockage?

"Hello!" he shouted. "Hello? Is someone there?"

"Joe?" Frank's muffled voice came to him. "Is that you?"

Joe let out a whoop of joy and then shouted back, "Yes! It's me!"

Serena stirred and looked up at him. "What's going on?"

"They're digging us out," Joe told her. "I can hear my brother on the other side."

Serena scrambled up next to him. "Can we help?"

"Sure thing!"

Together, they began pulling away the rocks that they could move. After about fifteen minutes of hard work, they could hear Frank plainly and talk to him. They were almost to freedom.

Then a rock they hadn't intended to move rolled down, evidently loosened from the digging. Serena screamed as she felt the dirt and rocks she was kneeling on give way. Joe realized what was happening and snatched her away from the miniature landslide just in time.

"You guys okay?" Frank called through the hole in concern.

"Yeah, we're fine." Joe looked up and in the glow of his flashlight, he could see that the landslide had finished opening up a hole big enough for them to crawl through. "We're better than fine. I think we can get through now."

First Serena and then Joe crawled through the opening. A moment later, they were on the other side with Frank. Joe put his arm over his brother's shoulders.

"You are a sight for sore eyes. Wait. Where's Nancy?"

"She went for help," Frank explained. "Is there anyone else back there?"

"I don't think so," Joe said. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

They started down the tunnel. When they had nearly reached its entrance into the main chamber, they met Nancy and Cole coming toward them.

"Daddy!" Serena shouted and ran forward.

Cole caught her in a hug and kissed her head several times, tears of joy in his eyes. "Serena! You're okay! I was so worried."

Nancy breathed a sigh of relief. "You okay, Joe?"

"Sure," Joe replied. "I don't think I want to go through something like this again any time soon, though. Are those weirdos still running around?"

"We caught their goddess," Nancy told him, "so any that are left should be rounded up soon."

NDHBNDHBND

A couple of hours later, Nancy, Frank, and Joe walked through the doors of the emergency section of St. Luke's Hospital in Calliope. Bess and George were sitting in the waiting room, but when they saw their friends, they jumped up and hurried toward them. The girls had had time to wash up and change their clothes, although scrapes and bruises on their hands and faces gave evidence of the ordeal that they had gone through. Bess and even George hugged each of them in turn.

"Thank goodness you guys are all okay!" Bess said.

George smirked. "You look like you were caught in a cave-in or something.

Nancy and the Hardys chuckled. Unlike Bess and George, they were still covered from head to toe in dirt.

"I wonder why," Joe replied sarcastically.

"How's Captain Ellis?" Nancy asked, becoming serious at once.

"We haven't heard yet," George said. "They took him into surgery as soon as we got him here. Agent Sokolawski and few other FBI people are standing guard to make sure nobody gets into the hospital and tries to finish him off. Agent Harris is down at the police station with a bunch of State Troopers, trying to get the prisoners booked and everything there sorted out. It sure is a mess when half the local police is mixed up in something like this."

"No kidding," Frank replied.

Once he, Nancy, and Joe had gotten themselves cleaned up and been looked over by a doctor, they went to speak with Agent Sokolawski.

"I just got the word," she said as they approached. "It looks like Ellis is going to live. He's got a long road of recovery, of course, and shoulder wounds nearly always have permanent repercussions, but he'll live, and that's the main thing, I suppose."

"That's good," Bess said. "I'm glad. You know, I feel kind of bad for thinking he was a creepy stalker at first."

"I doubt he'll hold it against you since you saved his life," George pointed out.

"What about Artemis and the rest of them?" Frank asked. "Any news there?"

"Mason Velazquez and few others offered to tell everything they know," Agent Sokolawski said. "In fact, they haven't stopped talking yet, from the sounds of it. It'll take some time, but between the FBI and the State Police, we'll get this whole thing sorted out eventually."

"And Penelope Spiros?" Joe asked.

"Some of our agents picked her and her husband up in Denver about half an hour ago," Agent Sokolawski told him. "They were trying to get on a plane to come here. Apparently they hadn't heard the news about what had gone down here yet. We'll conduct a thorough investigation into them and whatever other activities they have going."

"What's going to happen to Cole Warner and Mason Velazquez and everyone else they forced to join their cult?" Bess inquired. "You know, they weren't really to blame for what happened."

"The courts will decide just how much each of them are to blame," Agent Sokolawski said matter-of-factly. "It will probably go better for the ones who are cooperating, though, and any of them who can prove that they were coerced."

"Well, then," Nancy said, "it sounds like our part of the case is all wrapped up."  
Joe smirked. "I would suggest that we spend the rest of our vacation skiing, but the mountain's closed."

Frank rolled his eyes. "We need to be getting back to Bayport anyway. Say, Agent Sokolawski, there's still the matter of our phones and my laptop that you guys confiscated."

"Oh, right," Agent Sokolawski replied. "Those are down at police headquarters. Harris can take a few minutes to get those back to you if you stop off there."

"Speaking of phones," George said abruptly, "we found your phone next to Agent Harris's car earlier, Nancy." She took the phone from her pocket and handed it to her friend.

"Thanks." As they were leaving the hospital, Nancy turned her phone on to check if she had any messages. It buzzed for nearly thirty seconds straight as message after message came in.

"Wow, someone's been trying to get your attention, Nance," Joe commented.

"It's Ned," Nancy said, grinning a little. "Give me a minute, guys, okay?"

She stepped off to the side and pressed the number she had set for speed-dial to Ned's phone. He answered almost immediately.

"Nancy! I've been trying to call you all day. I guess you've been busy with your detective work, huh?"

"It's been a pretty full day," Nancy agreed.

"Well, have you made any progress?" Ned asked.

"We sure did. It's case closed. We'll be back home day after tomorrow at the latest. I'll tell you all about it then. It was certainly quite the case, though."

Ned chuckled. "You wouldn't expect me to find anything but the best for you."

"I'd be happy to solve any case you find for me."

"Then I'll keep my eyes open for one. But next time, you've got to let me come along. Deal?"

"Deal."

 _A/N: Once again, thank you so much for reading. Thank you especially if you have left reviews, followed, or favorited this story! I so appreciate your support and feedback! I hope you've enjoyed this story._

 _Usually, at the end of a story, I try to give some idea of what I'm going to be doing next. As usual, though, I don't really know what's going to be next for me as far as fanfiction goes. I have quite a few ideas for stories swirling around my head, mostly focusing on Nancy (I love the Hardys, too, but has anyone else noticed that for the past couple years we have had a serious drought of Nancy stories? That needs rectified). I haven't really started writing any of them. Part of this is because writing a full-length story is a pretty big time commitment, and I've got some other writing projects that I really should be devoting most of my time to. For the present, then, I'll be taking a break from writing fanfiction (I might write a few one-shots or three- or four-chapter stories in the meantime, but nothing big). If, by some chance, you miss my writing during that time, then you might be interested to know that I have an original work or two available for purchase on Amazon. You can check the bottom paragraph of my profile for more information or PM me._

 _One more time, thank you very much. I love writing for this fandom, and I will be back when time and inspiration allow me._

 _~hbndgirl_


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